An object is to provide a semiconductor device of which a manufacturing process is not complicated and by which cost can be suppressed, by forming a thin film transistor using an oxide semiconductor film typified by zinc oxide, and a manufacturing method thereof. For the semiconductor device, a gate electrode is formed over a substrate; a gate insulating film is formed covering the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor film is formed over the gate insulating film; and a first conductive film and a second conductive film are formed over the oxide semiconductor film. The oxide semiconductor film has at least a crystallized region in a channel region.

Semiconductor device, and manufacturing method thereof

Moore's law: the future of Si microelectronics

During the past decade, two-dimensional materials have attracted incredible interest from the electronic device community The first two-dimensional material studied in detail was graphene and, since 2007, it has intensively been explored as a material for electronic devices, in particular, transistors While graphene transistors are still on the agenda, researchers have extended their work to two-dimensional materials beyond graphene and the number of two-dimensional materials under examination has literally exploded recently Meanwhile several hundreds of different two-dimensional materials are known, a substantial part of them is considered useful for transistors, and experimental transistors with channels of different two-dimensional materials have been demonstrated In spite of the rapid progress in the field, the prospects of two-dimensional transistors still remain vague and optimistic opinions face rather reserved assessments The intention of the present paper is to shed more light on the merits and drawbacks of two-dimensional materials for transistor electronics and to add a few more facets to the ongoing discussion on the prospects of two-dimensional transistors To this end, we compose a wish list of properties for a good transistor channel material and examine to what extent the two-dimensional materials fulfill the criteria of the list The state-of-the-art two-dimensional transistors are reviewed and a balanced view of both the pros and cons of these devices is provided

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Two-dimensional materials and their prospects in transistor electronics

A detailed theoretical picture is given for the physics of strain effects in bulk semiconductors and surface Si, Ge, and III–V channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. For the technologically important in-plane biaxial and longitudinal uniaxial stress, changes in energy band splitting and warping, effective mass, and scattering are investigated by symmetry, tight-binding, and k⋅p methods. The results show both types of stress split the Si conduction band while only longitudinal uniaxial stress along ⟨110⟩ splits the Ge conduction band. The longitudinal uniaxial stress warps the conduction band in all semiconductors. The physics of the strain altered valence bands for Si, Ge, and III–V semiconductors are shown to be similar although the strain enhancement of hole mobility is largest for longitudinal uniaxial compression in ⟨110⟩ channel devices and channel materials with substantial differences between heavy and light hole masses such as Ge and GaAs. Furthermore, for all these materials,...

Physics of strain effects in semiconductors and metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

Strained silicon is now an integral feature of the latest generation of transistors and electronic devices because of the associated enhancement in carrier mobility. Strain is also expected to have an important role in future devices based on nanowires and in optoelectronic components. Different strategies have been used to engineer strain in devices, leading to complex strain distributions in two and three dimensions. Developing methods of strain measurement at the nanoscale has therefore been an important objective in recent years but has proved elusive in practice: none of the existing techniques combines the necessary spatial resolution, precision and field of view. For example, Raman spectroscopy or X-ray diffraction techniques can map strain at the micrometre scale, whereas transmission electron microscopy allows strain measurement at the nanometre scale but only over small sample areas. Here we present a technique capable of bridging this gap and measuring strain to high precision, with nanometre spatial resolution and for micrometre fields of view. Our method combines the advantages of moire techniques with the flexibility of off-axis electron holography and is also applicable to relatively thick samples, thus reducing the influence of thin-film relaxation effects.

Nanoscale holographic interferometry for strain measurements in electronic devices

This paper reviews the history of strained-silicon and the adoption of uniaxial-process-induced strain in nearly all high-performance 90-, 65-, and 45-nm logic technologies to date. A more complete data set of n- and p-channel MOSFET piezoresistance and strain-altered gate tunneling is presented along with new insight into the physical mechanisms responsible for hole mobility enhancement. Strained-Si hole mobility data are analyzed using six band k/spl middot/p calculations for stresses of technological importance: uniaxial longitudinal compressive and biaxial stress on [001] and [110] wafers. The calculations and experimental data show that low in-plane and large out-of-plane conductivity effective masses and a high density of states in the top band are all important for large hole mobility enhancement. This work suggests longitudinal compressive stress on [001] or [110] wafers and channel direction offers the most favorable band structure for holes. The maximum Si inversion-layer hole mobility enhancement is estimated to be /spl sim/ 4 times higher for uniaxial stress on (100) wafer and /spl sim/ 2 times higher for biaxial stress on (100) wafer and for uniaxial stress on a [110] wafer.

Uniaxial-process-induced strained-Si: extending the CMOS roadmap

Uniaxial four point mechanical stress-altered direct and trap-assisted gate leakage currents are measured for (100) p-type silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors with TaN gate and SiO2 dielectric. In samples where direct tunneling is dominant, tensile stress along [110] increases the gate to substrate electron tunneling, while it decreases electron tunneling from substrate to gate. An opposing dependence is observed with compressive stress. In samples where trap-assisted tunneling is dominant, gate leakage current is shown to increase for both tensile and compressive stresses, which likely results from a mechanical stress-induced decrease in trap activation energy of the SiO2∕Si interface traps.

Impact of mechanical stress on direct and trap-assisted gate leakage currents in p-type silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors

Uniaxial four-point wafer bending stress-altered gate tunneling currents are measured for germanium (Ge)/silicon (Si) channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with HfO2/SiO2 gate dielectrics and TiN/P+ poly Si electrodes. Carrier separation is used to measure electron and hole currents. The strain-altered hole tunneling current from the p-type inversion layer of Ge is measured to be ∼4 times larger than that for the Si channel MOSFET, since the larger strain-induced valence band-edge splitting in Ge results in more hole repopulation into a subband with a smaller out-of-plane effective mass and a lower tunneling barrier height. The strain-altered electron tunneling current from the metal gate is measured and shown to change due to strain altering the metal work function as quantified by flatband voltage shift measurements of Si MOS capacitors with TaN electrodes.

Impact of mechanical stress on gate tunneling currents of germanium and silicon p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and metal gate work function

Uniaxial-mechanical-stress altered gate leakage current and dielectric constant of silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices with nitrided Hf-silicate (HfSiON) dielectric are measured as a function of uniaxial stress applied using four-point wafer bending along the [110] direction. The gate leakage current and dielectric constant are found to increase by ∼2% per 100MPa of tensile and compressive stresses. A decrease in hole trap activation energy in hafnium oxide-based dielectric is used to explain the mechanical stress altered gate leakage. It is proposed that the HfSiON dielectric constant increase results from band gap narrowing caused by strain induced N p band splitting.

Strain induced changes in gate leakage current and dielectric constant of nitrided Hf-silicate metal oxide semiconductor capacitors

Radiation-induced charge trapping and mobility degradation are measured on uniaxially stressed HfO2-based nMOSFETs. Controlled external mechanical stress is applied via a four-point bending jig while the samples are irradiated using 10-keV X-rays. Positive charge trapping is observed for unstressed devices, and for devices irradiated under both compressive and tensile stress. Reduced trapped charge is measured as the uniaxial stress level increases. These results suggest that the increased stress leads to a reconfiguration of defect microstructure, as compared to the unstressed devices. The reconfiguration consists of changes in bond lengths and angles and a corresponding change in trap energy levels, which can (1) reduce the probability that a defect can capture holes, (2) increase the probability for electron and trapped-hole recombination, and/or (3) increase the mobility of the transporting holes in the oxides of the devices that are irradiated under stress. These results show that increased mechanical stress in high-k dielectrics does not degrade their radiation hardness. We also observe that the post-irradiation channel mobility degrades less in uniaxially stressed devices than unstressed devices.

Youn Sung Choi

Papers

Uniaxial-process-induced strained-Si: extending the CMOS roadmap

Impact of mechanical stress on direct and trap-assisted gate leakage currents in p-type silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors

Impact of mechanical stress on gate tunneling currents of germanium and silicon p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and metal gate work function

Strain induced changes in gate leakage current and dielectric constant of nitrided Hf-silicate metal oxide semiconductor capacitors

Total Ionizing Dose Effects on Strained ${\rm HfO}_{2}$ -Based nMOSFETs