21-ps 0.1-μm CMOS devices operating at room temperature

High-speed complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-inverter ring oscillators with the shortest gate length of 0.17 μm were fabricated by a conventional large-scale integrated (LSI) technology. The propagation delays were 21 ps / stage (2.0 V) at room temperature and 17 ps / stage (2.0 V) at 80 K. These results are the fastest records reported for bulk CMOS devices as of today. The results were obtained by reducing effective drain junction capacitances with “double-finger gates,” and devices will probably be faster if the areas are completely proportionally reduced to the feature size. Though it is important for CMOS devices to increase drain currents, a silicidation technique for source and drain was not necessary for the tested devices to reduce series resistance