Ultimate Si
Ultimate Silicon
Ultimate silicon is the investigation of the ultimate limits that will determine how small semiconductor devices such as transistors can be made. We look at many of the fundamental electronic transport properties in devices with length scales below 20 nm. As an example is a 20 nm wide n-Si wire on the right with three rap-around 20 nm long gates designed to investigate tunnelling mechanisms in small silicon transistors.
We have also performed work with IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre investigating the interaction effects across thin (~ 1.9 nm) gate oxides in MOSFET devices. Due to electron-electron interactions, measurements of mobilities of 2DEGs in MOSFETs at low temperature and without well p-doping demonstrate reduced peak mobility as the gate oxide thickness is reduced.
Significant publications:
M. Dragosavac, D.J. Paul, M. Pepper, A.B. Fowler and D.A. Buchanan, "Effective electron mass in ultra-thin gate-oxide silicon MOSFET inversion layers" Semiconductor Science and Technology 20, pp664-667 (2005)
