We investigated the leakage mechanism in the recently developed DRAM cell transistors having deeply recessed channels for sub-50 nm technology using a gate-controlled diode method. The identification and modeling of the various leakage components in DRAM cell transistors with three-dimensional structures is of great importance for the estimation of their data retention characteristics. Our study reveals that there is a significant difference in the leakage mechanisms of planar and recessed channel MOSFETs, due to their different geometrical aspects. The leakage current at the extended gate-drain overlapping region in recessed channel MOSFETs is of particular importance from the viewpoint of their refresh modeling. The information on the leakage characteristics of three-dimensional DRAM cell transistors obtained herein will be very useful for refresh modeling and future DRAM device designs. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.