Heterojunction tunneling field-effect transistors (HTFETs) that use strained-silicon/strained-germanium type-II staggered band alignment for band-to-band tunneling (BBT) injection are simulated using a nonlocal quantum tunneling model. The tunneling model is first compared to measurements of gatecontrolled BBT in previously fabricated strained SiGe diodes and is shown to produce good agreement with the measurements. The simulation of the gated diode structure is then extended to study HTFETs with an effective energy barrier of 0.25 eV at the strained-Si/strained-Ge heterointerface. As the band alignment, particularly the valence band offset, is critical to modeling HTFET operation, analysis of measured characteristics of MOS capacitors fabricated in strained-Si/strained-Ge/relaxed Si 0.5 Ge 0.5 heterojunctions is used to extract a valence band offset of 0.64 eV at the strained-Si/strained-Ge heterointerface. Simulations are used to compare HTFETs to MOSFETs with similar technology parameters. The simulations show that HTFETs have potential for low-operating-voltage (V dd < 0.5 V) application and exhibit steep subthreshold swing over many decades while maintaining high ON-state currents.
The fabrication of ultrathin strained silicon directly on insulator is demonstrated and the thermal stability of these films is investigated. Ultrathin (∼13 nm) strained silicon on insulator layers were fabricated by epitaxial growth of strained silicon on relaxed SiGe, wafer bonding, and an etch-back technique employing two etch-stop layers for improved across wafer thickness uniformity. Using 325 nm Raman spectroscopy, no strain relaxation is observed following rapid thermal annealing of these layers to temperatures as high as 950 °C. The thermal stability of these films is promising for the future fabrication of enhanced performance strained Si ultrathin body and double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors.
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