Insulator (electricity)

About: Insulator (electricity) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15941 publications have been published within this topic receiving 108950 citations. The topic is also known as: electrical insulator.

Dielectric diode, fabrication thereof, and charge store memory therewith

Abstract: A dielectric diode is provided in accordance with the principles of this invention. The dielectric diode is in the form of a capacitor wherein one of the electrodes has a high contact barrier, e.g., 4 electron-volts, and the other has a low contact barrier, e.g., 1 electron-volt, giving the resulting structure a diode behavior. Illustratively, the electrode at the low contact barrier comprises a valve metal or a very reactive metal which has been anodized or oxidized to provide a layer region with a given concentration of positive ions. The resulting metal oxide is covered with a wide band gap insulator such as SiO 2 . The composite contact barrier from the conductor to the insulator is typically less than 1 eV and results from the transition layer region between the conductor electrode and the insulator layer. The wide gap insulator layer is covered on the opposite surface with another electrode which has a high contact barrier. Electronic current will tunnel easily from the first electrode into the insulator layer via the composite contact barrier and then will be collected by the second electrode as a relatively large tunnel current. However, the tunnel current from the second electrode, through the insulator and to the first electrode is relatively quite small at electric fields less than 10 6 volts/cm. A dielectric diode provided in accordance with the principles of this invention can be used to charge and discharge a capacitor, forming a memory cell. The charge on the memory capacitor can be sensed by a field effect transistor.

Polishing of small composite semiconductor materials

Abstract: A device includes a crystalline material within an area confined by an insulator. A surface of the crystalline material has a reduced roughness. One example includes obtaining a surface with reduced roughness by using a planarization process configured with a selectivity of the crystalline material to the insulator greater than one. In a preferred embodiment, the planarization process uses a composition including abrasive spherical silica, H2O2 and water. In a preferred embodiment, the area confined by the insulator is an opening in the insulator having an aspect ratio sufficient to trap defects using an ART technique.

Organic thin-film transistors having inorganic/organic double gate insulators

Abstract: Bottom-contact organic thin-film transistors (BC OTFTs) based on inorganic/organic double gate insulators were demonstrated. The double gate insulators consisted of tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) with high dielectric constant (κ) as the first gate insulator and octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) with low κ as the second gate insulator. The devices have carrier mobilities larger than 10−2cm2∕Vs, on/off current ratio greater than 105, and the threshold voltage of −14V, which is threefold larger field-effect mobility and an order of magnitude larger on/off current ratio than the OTFTs with a Ta2O5 gate insulator. The leakage current was decreased from 2.4×10−6 to 7.4×10−8 A due to the introduction of the OTS second dielectric layer. The results demonstrated that using inorganic/organic double insulator as the gate dielectric layer is an effective method to fabricate OTFTs with improved electric characteristics.

Shallow trench isolation technology to eliminate a kink effect

Abstract: A process for creating an insulator filled, shallow trench, in a semiconductor substrate, in which the insulator layer in the shallow trench, is not exposed to procedures used to remove defining composite insulator layers, has been developed. The process features creating a lateral recess, in a thick silicon nitride layer, used as a component of a composite insulator layer, where the composite insulator layer is used for subsequent definition of the shallow trench, in the semiconductor substrate. An insulator deposition, filling openings, and recesses, in the composite insulator layer, and filling the shallow trench, followed by removal of excess insulator fill, on the top surface of the composite insulator layer, results in the formation of a "T" shape insulator, comprised of an insulator shape, in the shallow trench, and comprised of a wider insulator shape, located in the composite insulator shape, with the lateral recess in the thick silicon nitride layer, and with the wider insulator shape, overlying the narrow, insulator shape, in the shallow trench. The insulator, in the shallow trench, is protected from the procedure used to remove components of the composite insulator layer, by the wider insulator shape.