The distribution characteristics of data retention time for DRAM was studied in connection with the probability distribution of the cell parameters. Using the cell parameters and the transient characteristics of cell node voltage, data retention time was investigated. The activation energy for dielectric layer growth on cell capacitance, the recombination trap energy for leakage current in the junction depletion region, and the sensitivity characteristics of sense amplifier were used as the random variables to perform the Monte Carlo simulation, and the probability distributions of cell parameters and distribution characteristics of cumulative failure bit on data retention time in DRAM cells were calculated. we found that the sensitivity characteristics of sense amplifier strongly affected on the tail bit distribution of data retention time.