A novel self-aligned double-gate TFT technology

In this letter, a novel self-aligned double-gate (SADG) thin-film transistor (TFT) technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The self-alignment between the top-gate (TG) and bottom-gate (BG) is realized by a noncritical chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) step. An ultrathin channel and a thick source/drain, that allow better device performance and lower source/drain resistance, are also automatically achieved. N-channel poly-Si TFTs are fabricated with maximum processing temperature below 600°C. Metal induced unilateral crystallization (MIUC) is used for poly-Si grain size enhancement. The fabricated SADG TFT exhibits symmetrical bidirectional transfer characteristics when the polarity of source/drain bias is interchanged. The on-current under double-gate operation is more than two times the sum of that under TG and BG operation     

A new polysilicon CMOS self-aligned double-gate TFT technology

In this paper, a new polysilicon CMOS self-aligned double-gate thin-film transistor (SA-DG TFT) technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The self-alignment between the top- and bottom-gate is realized by a backlight exposure technique. The structure has an ultrathin channel region (300 /spl Aring/) and a thick source/drain region. Experimental results show that this technology provides excellent current saturation due to a combination of the effective reduction in the drain field and the full depletion of the ultrathin channel. Moreover, for n-channel devices, the SA-DG TFT has a 4.2 times higher on-current (V/sub gs/=20V) as compared to the conventional single-gate TFT. Whereas for the p-channel devices, the SADG TFT has a 3.6 times higher on-current (V/sub gs/=-20V) compared to the conventional single-gate device.     

A novel self-aligned bottom gate poly-Si TFT with in-situ LDD

A lithography independent self-aligned bottom gate thin film transistor (SABG-TFT) technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The unique feature of the technology is the formation of self-aligned and symmetrical lightly doped source/drain (LDD) structure without any additional photolithographic or implantation steps. Thus, the number of masks used in the technology is the same as that in a conventional top gate TFT technology. Moreover, devices formed by the proposed method have thick source/drain and a thin channel region for providing low source/drain resistance and improved I-V characteristics. P-channel TFT devices are fabricated using a simple low temperature (⩽600°C) process. The fabricated SABG-TFT exhibits symmetrical transfer characteristics when the polarity of source/drain bias is reversed. The effective mobility and on-off current ratio of the devices are about 35 cm²/V-s and 6×10⁶ respectively     

Compact modeling of quantum effects in symmetric double-gate MOSFETs

Quantum effects have been incorporated in the analytic potential model for double-gate MOSFETs. From extensive solutions to the coupled Schrodinger and Poisson equations, threshold voltage shift and inversion layer capacitance are extracted as closed form functions of silicon thickness and inversion charge density. With these modifications, the compact model is shown to reproduce C-V and I-V curves of double-gate MOSFETs consistent with those obtained from those measured from experimental FinFET hardware.     

A novel self-aligned poly-Si TFT with field-induced drain formed by the damascene Process

We have proposed and fabricated a self-aligned polysilicon thin-film transistor (poly-Si TFT) with a thick dielectric layer at the gate edges near the source and drain. A T-shaped polysilicon gate was successfully formed by the damascene process used in VLSI interconnection technology. During the on state, an inversion layer is induced by the subgate as a drain so that the on current is still high and the poly-Si region under the subgate behaves as an offset, reducing the off-state leakage current during the off-state. As the subgate dielectric becomes 3.5 times thicker than the main gate oxide, the minimum off-state leakage current of the new TFT is decreased from 1.4/spl times/10/sup -10/ to 1.3/spl times/10/sup -11/ without sacrifice of the on current. In addition, the on-off current ratio is significantly improved.     

Electrical characteristics of new LDD poly-Si TFT structuretolerant to process misalignment

A new lightly doped drain (LDD) poly-Si TFT structure having symmetrical electrical characteristics independent of the process induced misalignment is described in this paper. Based on the experimental results, we have established that there is no difference between the bi-directional I_D-V_G characteristics, and a low leakage current, comparable to a conventional LDD poly-Si TFT, has been maintained for this new poly-Si TFT. The maximum ON/OFF current ratio of about 1×10⁸ is obtained for the LDD length of 1.0 μm. In addition, the kink effect in the output characteristics has been remarkably improved in the new TFTs in comparison to the conventional non-LDD single- or dual-gate TFTs     

The use of disposable double spacer and self-aligned cobaltsilicide for LDD MOSFET fabrication

The use of a disposable double spacer of silicon-nitride/amorphous-silicon to fabricate lightly-doped-drain (LDD) MOSFETs with just two masking steps compared to four in the conventional oxide spacer LDD FET is discussed. The α-Si spacer is disposed of after it has been used to pattern the nitride. The nitride acts as a second spacer to block low-energy source/drain (S/D) implants and to shift LDD implants away from the gate edge. Self-aligned metallization can be realized using the nitride as silicidation barrier     

Charge-based model for symmetric double-gate MOSFETs with inclusion of channel doping effect

This paper presents a unified charge-based model for symmetric double-gate (DG) MOSFETs with a wide range of channel doping concentrations. From one dimensional (1D) Poisson–Boltzmann equation in the DG MOSFET structure, an accurate inversion charge model is proposed, which predicts the inversion charge density precisely from weak inversion, through moderate inversion and finally to strong inversion region for both heavily doped and lightly doped condition. Based on that, the unified drain current model is developed from Pao-Sah’s dual integral. The unified terminal charge and trans-capacitance models are derived out from Ward and Dutton’s linear-charge-partition scheme. Extensive numerical simulations are performed on DG MOSFETs to verify the unified charge-based models and good agreements between them are obtained, proving the validity of the proposed model for further circuit simulation.     

Implementation and characterization of self-aligned double-gate TFTwith thin channel and thick source/drain

In this paper, a self-aligned double-gate (SADG) TFT technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The self-alignment between the top-gate and bottom-gate is achieved by a noncritical chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) step. A thin channel and a thick source/drain region self-aligned to the two gates are realized in the proposed process. Simulation results indicate that the self-aligned thick source/drain region leads to a significant reduction in the lateral electric field arisen from the applied drain voltage. N-channel poly-Si TFTs are fabricated with a maximum processing temperature of 600°C. Metal-induced unilateral crystallization (MIUC) is used to enhance the grain size of the poly-Si film. The fabricated SADG TFT exhibits symmetrical bi-directional transfer characteristics when the polarity of source/drain is reversed. The on-current under double-gate operation is more than two times the sum of that under individual top-gate and bottom-gate control. High immunity to short channel effects and kink-free current-voltage (I-V) characteristics are also observed in the SADG TFTs     

Design and characteristics of a lightly doped drain (LDD) device fabricated with self-aligned titanium disilicide

An As-P double-diffused lightly doped drain (LDD) device has been designed and fabricated with a self-aligned titanium disilicide process. The device design was aided by using an analytical one-dimensional model, and analytic results agree well with experimental data on the avalanche breakdown voltage gain and the ratio of substrate current to source current. Threshold voltage and subthreshold characteristics of this device do not deviate from those of a conventional device without LDD and silicide. The drain avalanche breakdown voltage of the LDD device is higher by 2.5 V over the conventional device. Transconductance degradation was observed for the LDD devices due to the inherently high source-drain series resistance of the LDD structure. Substrate current is reduced and hot-electron reliability is greatly improved. The titanium disilicide process effectively reduces the sheet resistances of the source-drain diffusion and the polysilicon gate to 3 Ω/sq compared with 150 Ω/sq of the unsilicided counterparts. It is also found that larger polysilicon grain size increases the sheet resistance of the silicide gate due to discontinuous titanium disilicide formation on top of polysilicon.     

Quantum mechanical compact modeling of symmetric double-gate MOSFETs using variational approach

A physics-based analytical model for symmetrically biased double-gate (DG) MOSFETs considering quantum mechanical effects is proposed. Schrödinger's and Poisson's equations are solved simultaneously using a variational approach. Solving the Poisson and Schrödinger equations simultaneously reveals quantum mechanical effects (QME) that influence the performance of DG MOSFETs. The inversion charge and electrical potential distributions perpendicular to the channel are expressed in closed forms. We systematically evaluated and analyzed the potentials and inversion charges, taking QME into consideration, in Si based double gate devices. The effect of silicon thickness variation in inversion-layer charge and potentials are quantitatively defined. The analytical solutions provide good physical insight into the quantization caused by quantum confinement under various gate biases.     

Effect of LDD structure and channel poly-Si thinning on agate-all-around TFT (GAT) for SRAM's

A lightly doped drain (LDD) structure was used in a gate-all-around TFT (GAT). This suppresses the leakage current much more than the LDD used in a single-gate TFT (SGT), and the current level of the GAT with the LDD is almost the same as that of the single-gate TFT (SGT) with the LDD keeping the GAT's advantage of a high on-current. This is because the LDD effectively relaxes the electric field at the drain edge and reduces the effect of the electric field from the surrounded gate of the GAT. Furthermore, the GAT can suppress individual performance variations. The suppression mechanism of the individual performance variation in a GAT was investigated using a poly-Si TFT simulator. The thinner the channel poly-Si, the smaller the individual performance variation of the TFT. The GAT is more effective in decreasing the individual performance variation for thin channels than the SGT because the GAT can achieve the full depletion of the channel poly-Si with a channel thickness twice as large as the SGT. The GAT is eminently suitable for use in high-density, low-voltage operations, and low-power SRAM's     

对称双栅多晶硅薄膜晶体管的沟道电势显式求解和漏电流模型

A physical and explicit surface potential model for undoped symmetric double-gate polysilicon thinfilm transistors has been derived based on an effective charge density approach of Poisson＇s equation with both exponential deep and tail state terms included. The proposed surface potential calculation is single-piece and eliminatestheregionalapproach.Modelpredictionsarecomparedtonumericalsimulationswithcloseagreement,having absolute error in the millivolt range. Furthermore, expressions of the drain current are given for a wide range of operation regions, which have been justified by thorough comparisons with experimental data.     

Analytical modelling for the current-voltage characteristics of undoped or lightly-doped symmetric double-gate MOSFETs

An analytical drain current model for undoped (or lightly-doped) symmetric double-gate (DG) MOSFETs is presented. This model is based on the subthreshold leakage current in weak inversion due to diffusion of carriers from source to drain and an analytical expression for the drain current in strong inversion of long-channel DG MOSFETs, both including the short-channel effects. In the saturation region, the series resistance, the channel length modulation, the surface-roughness scattering and the saturation velocity effects were also considered. The proposed model has been validated by comparing the transfer and output characteristics with simulation and experimental results.     

Analytical solution of fundamental surface potential equations for symmetric double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

Both the fundamental surface potential equations for undoped and doped symmetric double-gate MOSFETs are transcendental equations with exponentials, to which a general analytical solution is introduced. Given the lowest potential in the channel film, this solution can calculate the surface potentials of both undoped and doped symmetric double-gate MOSFETs accurately. This analytical approach could also be applied to solve other similar device equations with exponential transcendent structures.     

An analytic model for channel potential and subthreshold swing of the symmetric and asymmetric double-gate MOSFETs

An analytical model for channel potential and subthreshold swing of the symmetric and asymmetric double-gate Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) is presented. Two-dimensional Poisson equation is solved analytically using series method and channel potential is obtained. The analytical expression for subthreshold swing is achieved. Model results are compared with Medici simulation results, both of them turn out to agree very well. The results show the variation of channel potential and subthreshold swing with channel length, gate bias, and oxide thickness, which will provide some guidance for the integrated circuit designs.     

Reduction of the anomalous resonances of symmetric log-periodic dipole antennas

Computer analysis reveals that the anomalous behavior of symmetric log-periodic dipole antennas (LPDA) is mainly due to the radiation of the dipole elements in the anomalous radiating region which is excited by the transmission line resonance of the feed structure. By replacing the cylindrical dipole elements in the LPD antennas with wide-angle triangular-outline dipoles with central wires, the computed anomalous back lobe peaks are reduced to negligible levels. LPD antennas were constructed using wide-angle triangular-outline dipoles with central wires, and they were found to exhibit satisfactory performance.     

TFT characteristics with distributed traps in the semiconductor

The development and solutions for the current-voltage drain characteristics of a TFT with exponentially distributed trapping centers in the semiconductor are presented. The development involves rederiving the current-voltage characteristic equation considering the dependence of carrier mobility upon trapping centers. The solutions provide insight regarding the drain current characteristics. The drain current with traps is found to be more dependent on the gate voltage than the trapless case and this dependence is a function of the steepness in the trap concentration. It is observed that a significant change in the shape of the drain characteristics near the knee region is caused by traps. Also the magnitude of the drain current is very dependent on the concentration and steepness of traps. Finally, the general expression for drain current dependence on temperature is found to be in good agreement with CdS experimental data.     

Modeling of hetero-interface potential and threshold voltage for tied and separate nanoscale InAlAs-InGaAs symmetric double-gate HEMT

This paper presents an approximate solution of a 2-D Poisson’s equation in the channel region, based on physical correspondence between MOSFET and HEMT, with the approximation that the vertical channel potential distribution is a cubic function of position to study not only tied gate but separate gate bias conditions as well. An analytical expression for both front and back heterointerface potential is derived and threshold voltage is obtained iteratively from the proposed potential model. The threshold voltage behavior for tied and separated double-gate HEMT is investigated for various device dimensions. The back gate effect of the separated double gate HEMT is investigated for the depleted back channel only. The results obtained are verified by comparing them with simulated and experimental results.