Dual-metal gate CMOS technology with ultrathin silicon nitride gatedielectric

We report the first demonstration of a dual-metal gate complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology using titanium (Ti) and molybdenum (Mo) as the gate electrodes for the N-metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (N-MOSFETs) and P-metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (P-MOSFETs), respectively. The gate dielectric stack consists of a silicon oxy-nitride interfacial layer and a silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) dielectric layer formed by a rapid-thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) process. C-V characteristics show negligible gate depletion. Carrier mobilities comparable to that predicted by the universal mobility model for silicon dioxide (SiO₂) are observed     

A radio-telemetry system with a shape memory alloy microelectrode for neural recording of freely moving insects

A radio frequency (RF) telemetry system with a shape memory alloy microelectrode was designed and fabricated. The total size and weight are 15 mm x 8 mm and 0.1 g, respectively. Since the telemeter is small and light enough to be loaded on a small animal such as an insect, the system can be used for the neural recording of a freely moving insect. The RF-telemeter can transmit signals by frequency modulation transmission at 80-90 MHz. The transmitted signals can be received up to about 16 meters away from the telemeter with a high signal-to-noise ratio. The neural activity can be detected without attenuation by using an instrumentation amplifier with its input impedance set to 2 Mohms at 1 kHz. The telemeter was loaded on a cockroach and the neural activity during a free-walk was successfully measured through this telemetry system.     

NRZ operation at 40 Gb/s of a compact module containing an MQW electroabsorption modulator integrated with a DFB laser

NRZ operation at 40 Gb/s has been successfully performed using a very compact module of a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) electroabsorption modulator integrated with a distributed-feedback (DFB) laser. While the DFB laser is injected with a constant current, the integrated MQW electroabsorption modulator is driven with a 10-Gb/s electrical NRZ signal. A clearly opened eye diagram has been observed in the modulated light from the modulator. And a receiver sensitivity of -27.2 dBm at 10/sup -9/ has been experimentally confirmed in the bit-error-rate (BER) performance.     

Single-Photon Interference Experiment Over 80 km With a Pulse-Driven Heralded Single-Photon Source

We have conducted a single-photon interference experiment over an 80-km optical fiber using a pulse-driven heralded single-photon source (HSPS). To the best of our knowledge, this is, thus far, the longest distance over which a single-photon interference experiment has been conducted using HSPSs (continuous-wave-pumped or pulse-driven). The effect of the 80-km transmission on the dispersion and fluctuation of polarization are more severe than those in our previous 40-km quantum key distribution (QKD) experiment. We have overcome the difficulties by some fine tunings and low-jitter controlling. By conducting ten consecutive transmission experiments over a total time of 30 min, an average quantum bit-error rate (QBER) of 7.9 plusmn 1.2% has been obtained. This QBER is lower than the threshold QBER of 10.55% which is considered as a limit for unconditional security for the QKD under negligible multiphoton emission.     

Effects of Heavy Element Substitution on Electronic Structure and Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Fe2VAl Thermoelectric Material

By using first-principles cluster calculations, we identified that Ta or W substitution for V is useful for decreasing the lattice thermal conductivity of the Fe₂VAl Heusler alloy without greatly affecting the electron transport properties. It was clearly confirmed that the Fe₂(V_1?x Ta _x )Al_0.95Si_0.05 (x?=?0, 0.025, 0.05), Fe₂(V_0.9?x Ta _x Ti_0.1)Al (x?=?0, 0.10, 0.20), and Fe₂(V_0.9?2x W _x Ti_0.1+x )Al (x?=?0, 0.05, 0.10) alloys indeed possessed large Seebeck coefficient regardless of the amounts of substituted elements, while their lattice thermal conductivity was effectively reduced. As a result of partial substitution of Ta for V, we succeeded in increasing the magnitude of the dimensionless figure of merit of the Heusler phase up to 0.2, which is five times as large as the Ta-free compound.     

A 146-mm/sup 2/ 8-gb multi-level NAND flash memory with 70-nm CMOS technology

An 8-Gb multi-level NAND Flash memory with 4-level programmed cells has been developed successfully. The cost-effective small chip has been fabricated in 70-nm CMOS technology. To decrease the chip size, a one-sided pad arrangement with compacted core architecture and a block address expansion scheme without block redundancy replacement have been introduced. With these methods, the chip size has been reduced to 146 mm/sup 2/, which is 4.9% smaller than the conventional chip. In terms of performance, the program throughput reaches 6 MB/s at 4-KB page operation, which is significantly faster than previously reported and very competitive with binary Flash memories. This high performance has been achieved by the combination of the multi-level cell (MLC) programming with write caches and with the program voltage compensation technique for neighboring select transistors. The read throughput reaches 60 MB/s using 16I/O configuration.     

Robust porous SiOCH/Cu interconnects with ultrathin sidewall protection liners

Robust porous low-k/Cu interconnects have been developed for 65-nm-node ultralarge-scale integrations (ULSIs) with 180-nm/200-nm pitched lines and 100-nm diameter vias in a single damascene architecture. A porous plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)-SiOCH film (k=2.6) with subnanometer pores is introduced into the intermetal dielectrics on the interlayer dielectrics of a rigid PECVD-SiOCH film (k=2.9). This porous-on-rigid hybrid SiOCH structure achieves a 35% reduction in interline capacitance per grid in the 65-nm-node interconnect compared to that in a 90-nm-node interconnect with a fully rigid SiOCH. A via resistance of 9.7 /spl Omega/ was obtained in 100-nm diameter vias. Interconnect reliability, such as electromigration, and stress-induced voiding were retained with interface modification technologies. One of the key breakthroughs was a special liner technique to maintain dielectric reliability between the narrow-pitched lines. The porous surface on the trench-etched sidewall was covered with an ultrathin plasma-polymerized benzocyclobuten liner (k=2.7), thus enhancing interline time-dependent dielectric breakdown reliability. The introduction of a porous material and the control of the sidewall are essential for 65-nm-node and beyond scaled-down ULSIs to ensure high levels of reliability.     

A transceiver PIC for bidirectional optical communication fabricated by bandgap energy controlled selective MOVPE

A transceiver PIC consisting of a DFB-LD, a receiver PD and a Y-shaped branch waveguides is realized by in-plane bandgap energy controlled selective MOVPE. Both active and passive core layers are formed in one step selective growth, and complicated fabrication procedure is no longer required. More than 1 mW fiber coupled power and 7 GHz receiver bandwidth are obtained. The modulation and detection operations at 500 Mb/s are successfully demonstrated.     

Formation of uniform GaAs multi-atomic steps with 20–30 nm periodicity and related structures on vicinal (111)B planes by MBE

We studied morphology of GaAs surfaces and the transport properties of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) on vicinal (111)B planes. Multi-atomic steps (MASs) are found on the vicinal (111)B facet grown by molecular beam epitaxy, which will affect electron transport on the facet. We also studied how the morphology of GaAs epilayers on vicinal (111)B substrates depends on growth conditions, especially on the As₄ flux. The uniformity of MASs on the substrates have been improved and smooth surfaces were obtained when the GaAs was grown with high As₄ flux, providing step periodicity of 20 nm. The channel resistance of the 2DEG perpendicular to the MASs is reduced drastically with this smooth morphology. These findings are valuable not only for fabricating quantum devices on the (111)B facets but also those on the vicinal (111)B substrates.