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Many in the microelectronics field view tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs) as society's best hope for achieving a >10× power reduction for electronic devices; however, despite a decade of considerable worldwide research, experimental TFET results have significantly underperformed simulations and conventional MOSFETs. To explain the discrepancy between TFET experiments and simulations, we investigate the parasitic leakage current due to Auger generation, an intrinsic mechanism that cannot be mitigated with improved material quality or better device processing. We expose the intrinsic link between the Auger and band-to-band tunneling rates, highlighting the difficulty of increasing one without the other. From this link, we show that Auger generation imposes a fundamental limit on ultimate TFET performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Band-to-band tunneling was studied in ion-implanted P/N junction diodes with profiles representative of present and future silicon complementary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) field effect transistors. Measurements were done over a wide range of temperatures and implant parameters. Profile parameters were derived from analysis of capacitance versus voltage characteristics, and compared to secondary-ion mass spectroscopy analysis. When the tunneling current was plotted against the effective tunneling distance (tunneling distance corrected for band curvature) a quasi-universal exponential reduction of tunneling current versus, tunneling distance was found with an attenuation length of 0.38 nm, corresponding to a tunneling effective mass of 0.29 times the free electron mass (m 0), and an extrapolated tunneling current at zero tunnel distance of 5.3× 10 7 A/cm² at 300 K. These results are directly applicable for predicting drain to substrate currents in CMOS transistors on bulk silicon, and body currents in CMOS transistors in silicon-on-insulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a comparative analysis of ultraviolet-O3 (UVO) and O2 plasma-based surface activation processes of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), enabling highly effective functionalization with metal oxide nanocrystals (MONCs). Experimental results from transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy show that by forming COOH (carboxyl), C-OH (hydroxyl), and C=O (carbonyl) groups on the MWCNT surface that act as active nucleation sites, O2 plasma and UVO-based dry pretreatment techniques greatly enhance the affinity between the MWCNT surface and the functionalizing MONCs. MONCs, such as ZnO and SnO2, deposited by the atomic layer deposition technique, were implemented as the functionalizing material following UVO and O2 plasma activation of MWCNTs. A comparative study on the relative resistance changes of O2 plasma and UVO activated MWCNT functionalized with MONC in the presence of 10 ppm methane (CH4) in air is presented as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemoresistive sensors based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) functionalized with SnO2 nanocrystals (NCs) have great potential for detecting trace gases at low concentrations (single ppm levels) at room temperature, because the SnO2 nanocrystals act as active sites for the chemisorption of gas molecules, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) act as an excellent current carrying platform, allowing the adsorption of gas on SnO2 to modulate the resistance of the CNTs. However, uniform conjugation of SnO2 NCs with MWCNTs is challenging. An effective atomic layer deposition based approach to functionalize the surface of MWCNTs with SnO2 NCs, resulting in a novel CH4 sensor with 10 ppm sensitivity, is presented in this paper. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were implemented to study the morphology, elemental composition, and the crystal quality of SnO2 functionalized MWCNTs. High resolution TEM images showed that the crystal quality of the functionalizing SnO2 NCs was of high quality with clear lattice fringes and the dimension almost three times smaller than shown thus far in literature. A lift-off based photolithography technique comprising bilayer photoresists was optimized to fabricate SnO2 functionalized MWCNTs-based chemoresistor sensor, which at room temperature can reliably sense below 10 ppm of CH4 in air. Such low level gas sensitivity, with significant reversible relative resistance change, is believed to be the direct result of the successful functionalization of the MWCNT surface by SnO2 NCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel atomic layer deposition (ALD) based ZnO functionalization of surface pretreated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for highly sensitive methane chemoresistive sensors. The temperature optimization of the ALD process leads to enhanced ZnO nanoparticle functionalization and improvement in their crystalline quality as shown by energy dispersive x-ray and Raman spectroscopy. The behavior of ZnO-MWCNT sensors in presence of methane concentrations down to 2 ppm level has been compared with that of pristine MWCNTs demonstrating that ZnO functionalization is an essential factor behind the highly sensitive chemoresistive nature of the ZnO-MWCNT heterostructures. The sensor is currently being tested under a range of conditions that include potentially interfering gases and changes to relative humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a microelectrode cell dedicated to direct assessment of the solid–liquid interface noise without recourse to a reference electrode. In the present design, two identical TiN electrodes of various sizes are used for differential measurements in KCl-based electrolytes. Measured noise of the TiN∣electrolyte system is found to be of thermal nature. Scaling inversely with electrode area, the noise is concluded to mainly arise from the solid–liquid interface. This noise is comparable to or larger than that of the state-of-the-art MOSFETs. Therefore, its influence cannot be overlooked for the design of future ion sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Si/SiO[sub 2] interface in 100-nm-thick chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tungsten gate metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures exhibits high interface state densities (D[sub it0]>5x10[sup 11]/cm[sup 2] eV) after conventional forming gas anneals over varying temperatures and times. In this letter, we show this is a consequence of the low diffusivity and solubility of molecular hydrogen in tungsten and the high temperature CVD process. We have discovered that atomic hydrogen is more effective in passivating tungsten gate MOS interfaces because of its higher diffusivity in tungsten. Atomic hydrogen can be produced (1) by the reaction of aluminum with water vapor when aluminum is evaporated on the top of tungsten, (2) by hydrogen implantation, and (3) by hydrogen plasma. These techniques can passivate the Si/SiO[sub 2] interface effectively in MOS structures (D[sub it0]<5x10[sup 10]/cm[sup 2] eV) with 100-nm thick CVD tungsten gates. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]