• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.1-7
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• 2004

In order to enhance the electron mobility in SOI n-MOSFET, we fabricated fully depletion(FD) n-MOSFET on the strained Si/relaxed SiGa/SiO$_2$/Si structure(strained Si/SGOI) formed by inserting SiGe layer between a buried oxide(BOX) layer and a top silicon layer. The summated thickness of the strained Si and relaxed SiGe was fixed by 12.8 nm and then the dependency of electron mobility on strained Si thickness was investigated. The electron mobility in the FD n-MOSFET fabricated on the strained Si/SGOI enhanced about 30-80% compared to the FD n-MOSFET fabricated on conventional SOI. However, the electron mobility decreased with the strained Si thickness although the inter-valley phonon scattering was reduced via the enhancement of the Ge mole fraction. This result is attributed to the increment of intra-valley phonon scattering in the n-channel 2-fold valley via the further electron confinement as the strained Si thickness was reduced.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.264-275
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• 2008

Electron mobility has been investigated theoretically in undoped double-gate (DG) MOSFETs of different channel architectures: a relaxed-Si DG SOI, a strained-Si (sSi) DG SSOI (strained-Si-on-insulator, containing no SiGe layer), and a strained-Si DG SGOI (strained-Si-on-SiGe-on-insulator, containing a SiGe layer) at 300K. Electron mobility in the DG SSOI device exhibits high enhancement relative to the DG SOI. In the DG SGOI devices the mobility is strongly suppressed by the confinement of electrons in much narrower strained-Si layers, as well as by the alloy scattering within the SiGe layer. As a consequence, in the DG SGOI devices with thinnest strained-Si layers the electron mobility may drop below the level of the relaxed DG SOI and the mobility enhancement expected from the strained-Si devices may be lost.

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 2008

Hole mobility characteristics of two representative biaxially strained SiGe/Si structures with high Ge contents are studied, They are single channel ($Si/Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Si$ substrate) and dual channel ($Si/Si_{1-y}Ge_y/Si_{1-x}Ge_x/Si$ substrate), where the former consists of a relaxed SiGe buffer layer with 60 % Ge content and a tensile-strained Si layer on top, and for the latter, a compressively strained SiGe layer is inserted between two layers, Owing to the hole mobility performance between a relaxed SiGe film and a compressive-strained SiGe film in the single channel and the dual channel, the hole mobility behaviors of two structures with respect to the Si cap layer thickness shows the opposite trend, Hole mobility increases with thicker Si cap layer for single channel structure, whereas it decreases with thicker Si cap layer for dual channel. This hole mobility characteristics could be easily explained by a simple capacitance model.

• 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.

• 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.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.253-256
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• 2006

We propose a novel power metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) employing a strained-Si channel structure to improve the current drivability and on-resistance characteristic of the high-voltage MOSFET. A 20 nm thick strained-Si low field channel NMOSFET with a $0.75\;{\mu}m$ thick $Si_{0.8}Ge_{0.2}$ buffer layer improved the drive current by 20% with a 25% reduction in on-resistance compared with a conventional Si channel high-voltage NMOSFET, while suppressing the breakdown voltage and subthreshold slope characteristic degradation by 6% and 8%, respectively. Also, the strained-Si high-voltage NMOSFET improved the transconductance by 28% and 52% at the linear and saturation regimes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.113-114
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• 2007

Hole mobility characteristics of single surface channel and dual channel Si/SiGe structure are compared, where the former one consists of a relaxed SiGe buffer layer and a tensile strained Si layer on top, and for dual channel structure a compressively strained SiGe layer is inserted between them. Due to the difference of hole mobility enhancement factors of layers between them, hole mobility characteristics with respect to the Si cap thickness shows the opposite tend. Hole mobility increases with thicker Si cap for single channel structure, whereas it decreases with thicker Si cap for dual channel structure.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.60-60
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• 2003

디자인 룰에 의해 Gate Length 가 100nm 이하로 줄어듦에 따라 Gate delay 감소와 Switch speed 향상을 위해 보다 더 큰 drive current 를 요구하게 되었다. 본 연구는 dirve current 를 증가시키기 위해 고안된 Strained Si substrate 를 만들기 위한 SiGe layer 성장에 관한 연구이다. SiGe layer를 성장시킬 때 SiH$_4$ gas와 GeH$_4$ gas를 furnace에 flow시켜 Chemical 반응에 의해 Si Substrate를 성장시키는 LPCVD(low pressure chemical vapor depositio)법을 사용하였고 SIMS와 nanospec을 이용하여 박막 두께 및 Ge concentration을 측정하였고, AFM으로 surface의 roughness를 측정하였다. 본 연구에서 우리는 10,20,30,40%의 Ge concentration을 갖는 10nm 이하의 SiGe layer를 얻기 위하여 l0nm 이하의 fixed 된 두께로 SiGe layer를 성장시킬 때 temperature, GeH$_4$ gas pre-flow, SiH$_4$ 와 GeH$_4$의 gas ratio를 변화시켜 성장시킨 후 Ge 의 concentration과 실제 형성된 두께를 측정하였고, SiGe의 mole fraction의 변화에 따른 surface의 roughness 를 측정하였다. 그 결과 10 nm의 두께에서 temperature, GeH$_4$ gas pre-flow, SiH$_4$ 와 GeH$_4$ 의 gas ratio의 변화와 Ge concentration 과의 의존성을 확인 할 수 있었고, SiGe 의 mole traction이 증가하였을 때 surfcace의 roughness 가 증가함을 알 수 있었다. 이 연구 결과는 strained Si 가 가지고 있는 strained Si 내에서 n-FET 와 P-FET사이의 불균형에 대한 해결과 좀 더 발전된 형태인 fully Depleted Strained Si 제작에 기여할 것으로 보인다.