Short-channel-effect-suppressed sub-0.1-μm grooved-gate MOSFET'swith W gate

Grooved-gate Si MOSFET's with tungsten gates are fabricated using conventional manufacturing technologies, and their short-channel-effect-free characteristics are verified down to a source and drain separation of around 0.1 μm. Phase shift lithography followed by a side-wall oxide film formation technique achieves a spacing of less than 0.2 μm between adjacent elevated polysilicons, subsequently resulting in a sub-0.1-μm source and drain separation in the substrate. Short-channel effects, such as threshold voltage roll-off and punchthrough, are found to be completely suppressed. From device simulations, the potential barrier formed at each grooved-gate corner is considered to be responsible for the suppression of the short-channel effects     

A new asymmetrical halo source GOLD drain (HS-GOLD) deepsub-half-micrometer n-MOSFET design for reliability and performance

An asymmetrical n-MOSFET device structure was developed that is suitable, in terms of reliability and performance, for scaling down to the sub-quarter-micrometer level without reduction of the supply voltage below 3.5 V. In this structure, large-tilt implantation is used to form the gate-overlapped LDD (GOLD) region at the drain electrode only. A halo (punchthrough stopper) is used at the source, but not at the drain. Superior hot carrier reliability and high punchthrough resistance are obtained using this device structure. A reliability-limited supply voltage of 4.2 V is obtained for an asymmetrical n-MOSFET with effective channel lengths as short as 0.25 μm. By extrapolation from the measured threshold roll-off characteristics, the authors expect that this structure can be designed with substantially shorter channel length while maintaining the 3.5-V supply voltage     

Scaling of poly-encapsulated LOCOS for 0.35 μm CMOS technology

We demonstrate the scaling of Poly-Encapsulated LOCOS (PELOX) for 0.35 μm CMOS technology without detrimental effects on gate oxide and shallow source/drain junction integrity. As-grown bird's beak punchthrough is shown to fundamentally limit the scalability of LOCOS-based schemes for narrow nitride features. A quantitative comparison of bird's beak punchthrough is made between LOCOS, Poly-Buffer LOCOS (PBL), and PELOX. The PELOX scalability is emphasized by evaluating the impact of the polysilicon-sealed cavity length for narrow nitride features. We present the realization of a 1 μm active/isolation pitch fully meeting the geometry and off-leakage requirements of 0.35 μm CMOS technologies (VDS⩽5 V). This field-implant-free isolation module avoids unnecessary process complexity by successfully integrating scaled PELOX with the split well-drive-in scheme. A highlight of this new approach is that the NMOSFET characteristics are largely width-independent down to 0.3 μm dimensions     

0.25 μm gate length CMOS devices for cryogenic operation

Under cryogenic operation, a low V_th realizes a high speed performance at a greatly reduced power-supply voltage, which is the most attractive feature of Cryo-CMOS. It is very important in sub-0.25 μm Cryo-CMOS devices to reconcile the miniaturization and the low V_th. Double implanted MOSFET's technology was employed to achieve the low V_th while maintaining the short channel effects immunity. We have investigated both the DC characteristics and the speed performance of 0.25 μm gate length CMOS devices for cryogenic operation. The measured transconductances in the saturation region were 600 mS/mm for 0.2 μm gate length n-MOSFET's and 310 mS/mm for 0.25 μm gate length p-MOSFET's at 80 K. The propagation delay time in the fastest CMOS ring oscillator was 22.8 ps at V_dd=1 V at 80 K. The high speed performance at extremely low power-supply voltages has been experimentally demonstrated. The speed analysis suggests that the sub-l0 ps switching of Cryo-CMOS devices will be realized by reducing the parasitic capacitances and through further miniaturization down to 0.1 μm gate length or below     

Sub-quarter-micrometer CMOS on ultrathin (400 Å) SOI

MOS transistors with effective channel lengths down to 0.2 μm have been fabricated in fully depleted, ultrathin (400 Å) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) films. These devices do not exhibit punchthrough, even for the smallest channel lengths, and have performance characteristics comparable to deep-submicrometer bulk transistors. The NMOS devices have a p⁺-polysilicon gate, and the PMOS devices have an n⁺-polysilicon gate, giving threshold voltages close to 1 V with very light channel doping. Because the series resistance associated with the source and drain regions can be very high in such thin SOI films, a titanium salicide process was used using a 0.25 μm oxide spacer. With this process, the sheet resistance of the silicided SOI layer is approximately 5 Ω/□. However, the devices still exhibit significant series resistance, which is likely due to contact resistance between the silicide and silicon source/drain regions     

Threshold and punchthrough behavior of laterally nonuniformally doped short-channel MOSFET's

Predictions of gate threshold voltage and punchthrough voltage have been made for short-channel VDMOS and UMOS field-effect transistors using exact, two-dimensional numerical analysis. In these devices the doping concentration varies laterally from source to drain. The threshold voltage is found to be related to the maximum value of channel doping. This correspondence becomes poorer as the channel length is diminished since punchthrough current begins to influence the threshold voltage for short-channel devices. Surface punch-through is predicted for the VDMOSFET whereas bulk punchthrough is found in the UMOS device. A correspondence between the results of two-dimensional computer simulation of punchthrough and the estimations of one-dimensional simplified theory is found.     

The behavior of narrow-width SOI MOSFETs with MESA isolation

Narrow-width effects in thin-film silicon on insulator (SOI) MOSFETs with MESA isolation technology have been studied theoretically and experimentally. As the channel width of the MOSFET is scaled down, the gate control of the channel potential is enhanced. It leads to the suppression of drain current dependence on substrate bias and punchthrough effect in narrow-width devices. The variation of threshold voltage with the channel width is also studied and is found to have a strong dependence on thickness of silicon film, interface charges in the buried oxide and channel type of SOI MOSFETs     

Cylindrical surrounding-gate MOSFETs with electrically induced source/drain extension

A novel cylindrical surrounding gate MOSFETs with electrically induced source/drain extension is proposed and demonstrated by numerical simulation for the first time. In the new device, a constant voltage is applied to the side-gate to form inversion layers acting as the extremely shallow virtual source/drain. Using three-dimensional device simulator, we have investigated the device performance focusing on the threshold voltage roll-off, the drain induced barrier lowering, the subthreshold swing, electrical field and carrier temperature. Based on our simulation results, we demonstrate that the proposed structure exhibits better suppression of short channel effects and hot carrier effects when compared to the conventional cylindrical surrounding gate MOSFETs.     

0.18-μm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator MOSFET's

High-performance 0.18-μm gate-length fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) MOSFET's were fabricated using 4-nm gate oxide, 35-nm thick channel, and 80-nm or 150-nm buried oxide layer. An elevated source/drain structure was used to provide extra silicon during silicide formation, resulting in low source/drain series resistance. Nominal device drive currents of 560 μA/μm and 340 μA/μm were achieved for n-channel and p-channel devices, respectively, at a supply voltage of 1.8 V. Improved short-channel performance and reduced self-heating were observed for devices with thinner buried oxide layers     

New experimental findings on hot carrier effects in sub-0.1 μmMOSFET's

The behaviors of the substrate current and the impact ionization rate are investigated for deep submicron devices in a wide temperature range. New important features are shown for the variations of the maximum substrate current as a function of applied biases and temperature. It is found that the gate voltage V_gmax, corresponding to the maximum impact ionization current conditions, is quasi-constant as a Function of the drain bias for sub-0.1 μm MOSFET's in the room temperature range. At low temperature, a substantial increase of V_gmax is observed when the drain voltage is reduced. It is also shown that, although a significant enhancement of hot carrier effects is observed by scaling down the devices, a strong reduction of the impact ionization rate is obtained for sub-0.1 μm MOSFET's operated at liquid nitrogen temperature in the low drain voltage range     

An accurate gate length extraction method for sub-quarter micronMOSFET's

By comparing measured and simulated gate-to-source/drain capacitances, C_gds, an accurate gate length extraction method is proposed for sub-quarter micron MOSFET's applications. We show that by including the 2-D field effect on the fringing capacitance, the polysilicon depletion and the quantum-well effects in the C_gds simulation, the polysilicon gate length, L_poly, can be accurately determined for device lengths down to the 0.1 μm regime. The accuracy of this method approaches that of cross-sectional TEM on the device under test, but without destroying the device. Furthermore, we note that as a result of accurate L_poly extraction, the source/drain lateral diffusion length, L_diff , and effective channel length, L_eff, can also be determined precisely. The accuracy of L_diff is confirmed by examining their consistency with experimentally obtained 2-D source/drain profile     

Stacked gate mid-channel injection flash EEPROM cell. I.Programming speed and efficiency versus device structure

Presents a new flash EEPROM cell which has been fabricated to achieve fast programming with low power. This memory cell attains speed and efficiency, comparable to the split-gate device, while preserving a simple stacked gate structure. The device programs faster than the stacked gate cell by a factor of about ten. Also, the threshold voltage shift of 5 V can be accomplished with the drain voltage of 3 V in about 50 μs. The proposed memory cell is strongly resistant against the punchthrough effect and is capable of erasure in byte unit at the drain side. Factors pertinent to programming are discussed, theoretically and experimentally, in correlation with device structures. The hot electron dwell time in the channel is shown to be an important parameter, affecting the programming speed and efficiency     

A novel hetero-material gate (HMG) MOSFET for deep-submicron ULSItechnology

A novel hetero-material gate MOSFET intended for integration into the existing deep-submicron silicon technology is proposed and simulated. It is shown that by adding a layer of material with a larger workfunction to the source side of the gate, short-channel effects can be greatly suppressed without degrading the driving ability. The threshold voltage roll-off can be compensated and tuned by controlling the length of this second gate. The new structure has great potential in breaking the barrier of deep-suhmicron MOSFET's scaling beyond 0.1 μm technologies     

Transistor operation of 30-nm gate-length EJ-MOSFETs

We have fabricated electrically variable shallow junction metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistors (EJ-MOSFET's) to investigate transistor characteristics of ultrafine-gate MOSFET's. By using EB direct writing onto an ultrahigh-resolution negative resist (calixarene), we achieved a gate length of 32 nm for the first time. The short-channel effects were effectively suppressed by electrically induced ultrashallow source/drain regions, and the fabricated device exhibited normal transistor characteristics even in the 32-nm gate-length regime at room temperature: an ON/OFF current ratio of 10 ⁵ and a cut-off current of 20 pA/μm     

Double pocket architecture using indium and boron for sub-100 nmMOSFETs

A double pocket architecture for sub-100 nm MOSFET's is proposed on the basis of indium pocket profiling at higher dose than the amorphization threshold. At high dose, the low-energy indium pockets realize the improvement of short channel effects and shallow extension formation of a highly doped drain, maintaining the low junction leakage level. A double pocket architecture using indium and boron is demonstrated in a 70 nm gate length MOSFET with high drive currents and good control of the short channel effects     

A low-resistance self-aligned T-shaped gate for high-performancesub-0.1-μm CMOS

This paper describes the high performance of T-shaped-gate CMOS devices with effective channel lengths in the sub-0.1-μm region. These devices were fabricated by using selective W growth, which allows low-resistance gates smaller than 0.1 μm to be made without requiring fine lithography alignment. We used counter-doping to scale down the threshold voltage while still maintaining acceptable short-channel effects. This approach allowed us to make ring oscillators with a gate-delay time as short as 21 ps at 2 V with a gate length of 0.15 μm. Furthermore, we experimentally show that the high circuit speed of a sub-0.1-μm gate length CMOS device is mainly due to the PMOS device performance, especially in terms of its drivability     

Impact of shallow source/drain on the short-channel characteristicsof pMOSFETs

We investigated the impart of shallow source/drain (S/D) on the characteristics of short-channel pMOSFETs with a gate length of 0.1 μm. We fabricated an ultrashallow S/D junction by solid phase diffusion of boron from a BSG sidewall. By precisely estimating the effective channel length, we found that the threshold voltage roll-off is independent of junction depth. In addition, the current drivability is degraded in a sample with a shallow junction. This makes it clear that a shallow junction with a low surface concentration does not improve the overall characteristics of ultrasmall pMOSFETs     

Transient behavior of the kink effect in partially-depleted SOIMOSFET's

The behavior of transients in the drain current of partially-depleted (PD) SOI MOSFET's down to L_eff=0.2 μm is examined as a function of drain bias, gate pulses of varying magnitude (V_GS), pulse duration, and pulse frequency. At fixed V_DS, the gate is pulsed to values ranging from 0.1 V above V_T to V_GS=V_DS. A slow transient is seen when the drain is biased at a V_DS where the current kink is observable. This slow transient can be on the order of microseconds depending on the relative magnitude of the impact ionization rate. For short times after the pulse edge or for very short pulses at low frequencies, it is shown that the subthreshold drain current value can be very different from the corresponding DC, and that the kink characteristic of PD MOSFET's disappears. However, the kink values can be approached when the pulse frequency and/or duration applied to the gate is increased, due to the latent charge maintained in the floating body at higher frequencies. No transient current effects were observed in fully-depleted SOI MOSFET's     

High-performance dual-gate CMOS utilizing a novel self-alignedpocket implantation (SPI) technology

A self-aligned pocket implantation (SPI) technology is discussed. This technology features a localized pocket implantation using the gate and drain electrodes (TiSi₂ film) as well as self-aligned masks. The gate polysilicon is patterned by KrF excimer laser lithography. The measured minimum gate length L_g (the physical gate length) is 0.21 μm for both N- and P-MOSFETs. A newly developed photoresist was used to achieve less than quarter-micrometer patterns. This process provides high punchthrough resistance and high current driving capability even in such a short channel length. The subthreshold slope of the 0.21-μm gate length is 76 mV/dec for N-MOSFETs and 83 mV/dec for P-MOSFETs. The SPI technology maintains a low impurity concentration in the well (less than 5×10 ¹⁶ cm^-3). The drain junction capacitance is decreased by 36% for N-MOSFETs and by 41% for P-MOSFETs, compared to conventional LDD devices, which results in high-speed circuit operation. The delay time per stage of a 51-stage dual-gate CMOS ring oscillator is 50 ps with a supply voltage of 3.3 V and a gate length of 0.36 μm, and 40 ps with a supply voltage of 2.5 V and a gate length of 0.21 μm     

MOSFET channel length: extraction and interpretation

This paper focuses on MOSFET channel length: its definition, extraction, and physical interpretation. After a brief review of the objectives of channel length extraction and previous extraction methods, the principle and the algorithm of the latest “shift and ratio” (S&R) method are described. The S&R method allows the channel mobility to be an arbitrary function of gate voltage and, at the same time, provides a way to determine the threshold voltage of short-channel devices independent of their parasitic resistances. Accurate and consistent results are obtained from nMOSFET and pMOSFET data down to 0.05 μm channel length. By applying the S&R method to model generated current-voltage (I-V) curves, it is shown that the extracted channel length should be interpreted in terms of the injection points where the MOSFET current spreads from the surface layer into the bulk source-drain region. This implies significant degradation of short-channel effects (SCE's) if the lateral source-drain doping gradient is not abrupt enough. Several remaining issues, including errors due to channel-length-dependent mobilities, difficulties with lightly-doped drain (LDD) MOSFET's, and interpretation of capacitance-voltage (C-V) extracted channel lengths, are discussed