• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.136-147
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• 2005

A theoretical design evaluation based on a hydrodynamic transport simulation of strained Si-SiGe on insulator (SSOI) type nMOSFETs is reported. Although, the net performance improvement is quite limited by the short channel effects, simulation results clearly show that the strained Si-SiGe type nMOSFETs are well-suited for gate lengths down to 20 nm. Simulation results show that the improvement in the transconductance with decreasing gate length is limited by the long-range Coulomb scattering. An influence of lateral and vertical diffusion of shallow dopants in the source/drain extension regions on the device performance (i.e., threshold voltage shift, subthreshold slope, current drivability and transconductance) is quantitatively assessed. An optimum layer thickness ($t_{si}$ of 5 and $t_{sg}$ of 10 nm) with shallow Junction depth (5-10 nm) and controlled lateral diffusion with steep doping gradient is needed to realize the sub-50 nm gate strained Si-SiGe type nMOSFETs.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.439-445
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• 2005

We introduce a strained-SiGe technology adopting different thicknesses of Si cap layers towards low power and high performance CMOS applications. By simply adopting 3 and 7 nm thick Si-cap layers in n-channel and p-channel MOSFETs, respectively, the transconductances and driving currents of both devices were enhanced by 7 to 37% and 6 to 72%. These improvements seemed responsible for the formation of a lightly doped retrograde high-electron-mobility Si surface channel in nMOSFETs and a compressively strained high-hole-mobility $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$ buried channel in pMOSFETs. In addition, the nMOSFET exhibited greatly reduced subthreshold swing values (that is, reduced standby power consumption), and the pMOSFET revealed greatly suppressed 1/f noise and gate-leakage levels. Unlike the conventional strained-Si CMOS employing a relatively thick (typically > 2 ${\mu}m$) $Si_xGe_{1-x}$ relaxed buffer layer, the strained-SiGe CMOS with a very thin (20 nm) $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$ layer in this study showed a negligible self-heating problem. Consequently, the proposed strained-SiGe CMOS design structure should be a good candidate for low power and high performance digital/analog applications.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1065-1068
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• 2003

For the first time, high quality ultra-thin strained Si/SiGe on Insulator (SGOI) substrate with total SGOI thickness( $T_{Si}$ + $T_{SiGe}$) of 13 nm is developed to combine the device benefits of strained silicon and SOI. In the case of 6- 10 nm-thick top silicon, 100-110 % $I_{d,sat}$ and electron mobility increase are shown in long channel nFET devices. However, 20-30% reduction of $I_{d,sat}$ and electron mobility are observed with 3 nm top silicon for the same long channel device. These results clearly show that the FETs operates with higher performance due to the strain enhancement from the insertion of SiGe layer between the top silicon layer and the buried oxide(BOX) layer. The performance degradation of the extremely thin( 3 nm ) top Si device can be attributed to the scattering of the majority carriers at the interfaces.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.42 no.9 s.339
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• pp.9-18
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• 2005

To make high-performance, low-power transistors beyond the technology node of 60 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors(C-MOSFETs) possible, the effect of electron mobility of the thickness of strained Si grown on a relaxed SiGe/SiO2/Si was investigated from the viewpoint of mobility enhancement via two approaches. First the parameters for the inter-valley phonon scattering model were optimized. Second, theoretical calculation of the electronic states of the two-fold and four-fold valleys in the strained Si inversion layer were performed, including such characteristics as the energy band diagrams, electron populations, electron concentrations, phonon scattering rate, and phonon-limited electron mobility. The electron mobility in an silicon germanium on insulator(SGOI) n-MOSFET was observed to be about 1.5 to 1.7 times higher than that of a conventional silicon on insulator(SOI) n-MOSFET over the whole range of Si thickness in the SOI structure. This trend was good consistent with our experimental results. In Particular, it was observed that when the strained Si thickness was decreased below 10 nm, the phonon-limited electron mobility in an SGOI n-MOSFT with a Si channel thickness of less than 6 nm differed significantly from that of the conventional SOI n-MOSFET. It can be attributed this difference that some electrons in the strained SGOI n-MOSFET inversion layer tunnelled into the SiGe layer, whereas carrier confinement occurred in the conventional SOI n-MOSFET. In addition, we confirmed that in the Si thickness range of from 10 nm to 3 nm the Phonon-limited electron mobility in an SGOI n-MOSFET was governed by the inter-valley Phonon scattering rate. This result indicates that a fully depleted C-MOSFET with a channel length of less than 15 m should be fabricated on an strained Si SGOI structure in order to obtain a higher drain current.