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ISDRS 2011, December 7-9, 2011, College Park, MD, USA

Student Paper

Fabrication of Segmented-Channel MOSFETs for Reduced Short-Channel Effects


Byron Hoa, Xin Suna, Nuo Xua, Takuji Sakob, Kaoru Maekawab, Masayuki Tomoyasub, Yasushi Akasaka c, and Tsu-Jae King Liua
a

Department of EECS, University of California, Berkeley,USA; bho@eecs.berkeley.edu b TEL Technology Center, America LLC,USA, c Tokyo Electron, Taiwan

To facilitate continued CMOS technology scaling, thin-body transistor structures such as the FinFET [1] and fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) MOSFET [2] have been proposed to better suppress short-channel effects (SCE) than the conventional MOSFET structure in the sub-25 nm gate length (Lg) regime. However, these structures require either more challenging fabrication processes or more expensive silicon-on-insulator substrates. Recently, a segmented-channel bulk MOSFET (SegFET) structure [3] was proposed as a more evolutionary solution that offers the advantages of a thin-body MOSFET (reduced variability in performance and improved scalability) together with the advantages of a conventional planar MOSFET (low substrate cost and capability for dynamic threshold-voltage control). The channel region of a SegFET consists of one or more parallel segments (stripes) of equal width Wstripe, which can be wider than Lg (Fig. 1). Within each stripe, the channel- and source/drain-doping profiles are similar to those in a planar bulk MOSFET. The stripes within a multi-stripe SegFET are isolated by very shallow trench isolation (VSTI) dielectric material, which extends to a depth below the source/drain extension (SDE) regions but can be much shallower than conventional shallow trench isolation, e.g. the deep source/drain regions may be contiguous beneath the VSTI. The superior electrostatic integrity of the SegFET as compared with a conventional MOSFET stems from enhanced gate control of the channel potential due to fringing electric fields through the VSTI. This effect can be magnified by using high-permittivity VSTI material and/or by slightly recessing the VSTI material to allow the gate to wrap around the top portions of the channel stripes. In this paper, fabrication of the first prototype SegFETs is described. The results show that the SegFET is more robust to SCE and has comparable layout area efficiency as compared against the conventional MOSFET. SegFETs can be fabricated using a conventional process flow, starting with a substrate that has a corrugated semiconductor surface. To form the corrugated-silicon substrate, 193 nm immersion lithography was used to print resist lines and spaces with 120 nm pitch, after which the Si in the spaces was recessed by 35 nm using reactive ion etching (RIE). The substrate surface was planarized by depositing a 300-nm-thick layer of Si3N4; this layer was subsequently etched back using RIE to form VSTI regions that are slightly recessed from the top surface of the silicon stripes (Fig. 1b). In this work, devices were fabricated on the corrugated-silicon substrate, while control devices were fabricated on a planar SOI wafer substrate, using the n-channel MOSFET fabrication process flow outlined in Fig. 2. Measured transfer characteristics (Id-Vg) and linear transconductance (gm) are shown in Fig. 3 for devices of the same effective channel length (Leff) [4]. The threshold voltage (Vt) of the SegFET is lower than that of the control device because of reduced depletion charge per unit channel width, due to the effect of channel sidewall gating, which also results in lower transverse electric field hence higher peak effective mobility. Parasitic series resistance (Rsd) [5] is larger for the SegFET than for the control device because of lower SDE doping (since the VSTI dielectric is slightly recessed from the top surface of the silicon stripes) and erosion of the stripes in the source/drain regions during gate, spacer, and contact hole overetching; these issues can be resolved through process optimization. Fig. 6 compares the Lg dependences of subthreshold swing, drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL), and Vt for SegFETs vs. control MOSFETs. The SegFET shows reduced SCE, confirming its superior electrostatic integrity. Note that SCE are well suppressed in the SegFET, even if Lg < Wstripe. In summary, segmented-channel MOSFETs (SegFETs) were fabricated using a conventional process flow by starting with a corrugated-silicon substrate. Due to enhanced gate control, SegFETs show reduced short-channel effects and can achieve comparable drive current per unit layout area as conventional MOSFETs. The SegFET design requires neither high-aspect-ratio channel stripes nor an ultra-thin SOI layer to achieve good electrostatic integrity; therefore it is an evolutionary solution for CMOS scaling to the end of the roadmap.
ISDRS 2011 http://www.ece.umd.edu/ISDRS2011

ISDRS 2011, December 7-9, 2011, College Park, MD, USA

References
[1] [2] N. Lindert, L. Chang, Y.-K. Choi, E. H. Anderson, W.-C. Lee, T.-J. King, J. Bokor, and C. Hu, Sub-60-nm quasi-planar FinFETs fabricated using a simplified process, IEEE Elec. Dev. Lett., vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 487-489, Oct. 2001. K. Cheng, A. Khakifirooz, P. Kulkarni, S. Ponoth, J. Kuss, D. Shahrjerdi, L.F. Edge, A. Kimball, S. Kanakasabapathy, K. Xiu, S. Schmitz, A. Reznicek, T. Adam, H. He, N. Loubet, S. Holmes, S. Mehta, D. Yang, A. Upham, S.-C. Seo, J.L. Herman, R. Johnson, Y. Zhu, P. Jamison, B.S. Haran, Z. Zhu, L.H. Vanamurth, S. Fan, D. Horak, H. Bu, P.J. Oldiges, D.K. Sadana, P. Kozlowski, D. McHerron, J. ONeill, B. Doris, Extremely thin SOI (ETSOI) CMOS with record low variability for low power system-on-chip applications, in IEDM Tech. Dig., 2009, pp. 49-52. X. Sun, V. Moroz, H. Takeuchi, G. Gebara, J. Wetzel, S. Ikeda, C. Shin, and T.-J. King Liu, Tri-gate bulk MOSFET design for CMOS scaling to the end of the roadmap, IEEE Elec. Dev. Lett., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 491-493, May 2008. G. Ghibaudo, New method for the extraction of MOSFET parameters, IEEE Elec. Dev. Lett., vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 543-545, Apr. 1988. D. Fleury, A. Cros, G. Bidal, J. Rosa, G. Ghibaudo, A new technique to extract the source/drain series resistance of MOSFETs, IEEE Elec. Dev. Lett., vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 975-977, Sept. 2009.

[3] [4] [5]

Fig. 1. Diagrams illustrating the segmented-channel bulk MOSFET (SegFET) structure.

Fig. 2. Fabrication process flows

Fig. 3. (a) Plan-view SEM of SegFET after gate etch. (b) Cross-sectional SEM taken along the gate of a fabricated SegFET (cutline AA in (a)), showing the channel stripes separated by Si3N4 VSTI regions.

Fig. 6. Average (over 6 die) measured subthreshold swing, drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL), and Vt as a function of Leff. SegFETs show improved scalability compared to the control devices.

Fig. 4. Measured transfer characteristics and linear transconductance for a SegFET and a control device of the same electrical channel length.

Fig. 5. Measured output characteristics for a SegFET and a control device of the same electrical channel length.

Fig. 7. Measured gate leakage characteristics for the SegFET and control device, normalized to the channel layout area.

ISDRS 2011 http://www.ece.umd.edu/ISDRS2011

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