Channel-Width Dependent Enhancement in Nanoscale Field Effect Transistor
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Channel-WidthDependentEnhancementinNanoscaleFieldEffectTransistorXihuaWang,YuChen,MiK.Hong,ShyamsunderErramilli,PritirajMohantyDepartmentofPhysics,BostonUniversity,590CommonwealthAvenue,Boston,MA02215
Wereporttheobservationofchannel-widthdependentenhancementinnanoscalefieldeffecttransistorscontaininglithographically-patternedsiliconnanowiresastheconductionchannel.Thesedevicesbehaveasconventionalmetal-oxide-semiconductorfield-effecttransistorsinreversesourcedrainbias.Reductionofnanowirewidthbelow200nmleadstodramaticchangeinthethresholdvoltage.Duetoincreasedsurface-to-volumeratio,thesedevicesshowhighertransconductanceperunitwidthatsmallerwidth.Ourdeviceswithnanoscalechannelwidthdemonstrateextremesensitivitytosurfacefieldprofile,andthereforecanbeusedaslogicelementsincomputationandasultrasensitivesensorsofsurface-chargeinchemicalandbiologicalspecies.
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Thefoundationofsemiconductormicroelectronicsin-dustryhasreliedonsuperiormaterialpropertiesofsiliconanditsscalingproperties.Combinationofsiliconwiththefield-effecttransistor(FET)designhasallowedde-vicesthataresmaller,fasterandcheaper.However,thetraditionalscalingofconventionalplanarCMOSdevicesleadstoperformancelimitationduetoincreasedleak-agecurrentwithreducedgatethickness[1].Therehasbeenintenseactivityinbothsilicon[2]andnon-siliconbasedmaterials[3,4,5]andgatedielectricsforimprovedperformance;however,investigationofalternativedevicearchitecturewithsiliconremainsamajorthrust,duetolarge-scalemanufacturingconstraints[2].Incomparisontobulk-planartransistorconfiguration,verticalthree-dimensionalchannelsbetweenthesourceandthedraincanprovidebettercontrolofcurrentflowwithinthechannel,betterI−Vcharacteristicsandbettersub-thresholdslopesinspecificbiasconfigura-tions.Inadditiontotheseimprovedproperties,controloftransversechannel-widthdimensionratherthanthegatethicknessoffersanewmethodofimprovingperfor-mance.Weshowthatinavertical3Dtransistor,theperformancecanbeenhancedasthechannelwidthisscaleddown.Thusweavoidtheproblemofincreasedleakagecurrentseeninconventionaldeviceswherethegatethicknessisreduced.Verticalthree-dimensionalchannelstructuresarenatu-rallyobtainedincarbonnanotubes(CNT)orchemically-grownsiliconnanowires(SiNW)mountedbetweensourceanddrainelectrodes.Bottom-gatedFETdevicesusingCNTandSiNWhavebeenusedtodemonstratelogicop-erationaswellasmolecularsensing[6,7,8].Apartfromtheissueoflackofmaterialscontrol,themaindifficultywiththisbottom-upapproachcontinuestobethefun-damentallackofcontrolinthecriticaldimension(CD)thatdeterminesthedevicesensitivityandresponse.Inthisletter,wereportfabricationandmeasurementofI−Vcharacteristicsofnovelfieldeffecttransis-torswiththree-dimensionalsiliconnanowirechannelsbe-tweenthesourceandthedrain.StartingfromSilicon-on-Insulator(SOI)wafers,weuseatop-downapproachforfabricatingnanomachinedthree-dimensionalsiliconnanowireswithcontrolledchannelwidth,usingelectron-beamlithography[9,10,11,12].TheCMOS-compatiblenanofabricationapproachissuitableforscalableman-ufacturingbecausethecriticaldimensionofthechan-nelwidthaswellasthegateconfigurationsarephys-icallyengineered.Whenthedeviceisoperatedinre-versesourcedrainbias,thethresholdvoltagedemon-stratesdramaticchangeasthechannelwidthisreducedbelow200nm.Thedeviceperformance,evaluatedintermsoftransconductanceperunitwidthofnanowiresurfaces,isenhancedasthechannelwidthisreduced.Thisnanoscale-dependentbehaviorcanbeexploitedindeviceapplicationsaslogicelementsandsensors[13,14].Thenanowirechannelinourfieldeffecttransistorde-vicesarefabricatedusinge-beamlithographyfollowedbysurfacenanomachining.ThestartingSOIwafercon-sistsof100nmthicksiliconasdevicelayer,380nmsilicondioxideinsulationlayer,and600µmofsiliconsubstrate.Thep-typedevicelayervolumeresistivityis10−20Ω·cm,correspondingto10−15cm−3initialdoping.Thedepletionwidthforbulksilicon(Si)withthesamedopingconcentrationisLD=130nm.ThedevicelayerofSOIisfullydepleted,sinceitsthicknessH=100nm<2LD.Thereisnofurtherintentionaldop-ingorhigh-temperatureannealing.Theadvantagesofnotperformingthissteparethatthefabricationprocessiseasyandwedonothavetoworryaboutthenonuniformdopingprofileinnanowiresduetosource/draindopingorhigh-temperatureannealingprocess.Thedrawbackisthatitleadstonon-Ohmiccontact,whichmayreducethedeviceperformance.However,wehavedevelopedasim-plyanalyticalmodeltoextractallparametersforevalu-atingdeviceperformance.Wealsofindthattheequiva-lentresistanceofthenon-Ohmiccontactismuchsmallerthanthenanowireresistancewhensmallreversebiasisapplied,sothedeviceperformanceisbarelyinfluencedbythenon-Ohmiccontactinthesensingapplications.Fig.1(a)showsascanningelectronmicrographofthedevices.Fig.1(b)-(c)showsschematicviewsofthenanowire.ThenanowirechanneldimensionarelengthL,