Dummy cell is the term used in the paper "Storage Array and Sense/Refresh Circuit for Single-Transistor Memory Cells" that introduced the idea. It's also the te

Dummy cell is the term used in the paper "Storage Array and Sense/Refresh Circuit for Single-Transistor Memory Cells" that introduced the idea. It's also the term used on the MK4116 datasheet and elsewhere. The capacitors in modern DRAMs are deep trenches, rather than a simple polysilicon plate. The trenches are 3.6 micrometers deep while the feature size is 45 nanometers, so they are remarkably deep. See the photos here: https://chipworksrealchips.blogspot.com/2014/02/intels-e-dram-shows-up-in-wild.html https://chipworksrealchips.blogspot.com/2014/02/intels-e-dra...