High-Performance Silicon Nanowire Reconfigurable Field Effect Transistors Using Flash Lamp Annealing

Abstract

Top-down fabrication of reconfigurable field effect transistors (RFET) is a prerequisite for large-scale integration. Silicon (Si) nanowire-based RFET devices have been extensively studied in the past decade. To achieve superior RFET performance, it is necessary to develop scalable devices with controlled silicidation of the channels, a high on–off ratio, and symmetrical p- and n- on-currents. In this work, we present the electrical performance of scalable RFET devices based on Si nanowires featuring controlled silicide lengths attained through millisecond-range flash lamp annealing (FLA). The electronic properties of the transistors are optimized by tuning the different gate schemes and gate dielectric materials for nanowire passivation. We explore gate capacitive control on the energy bands in the conduction of charge carriers using various dielectric materials. The transfer characteristics of a single top-gated device with SiO₂ as gate dielectric show enhanced ambipolar behavior with negligible hysteresis, low subthreshold swing values of 210 mV/dec, and an on–off ratio (I_ON/I_OFF) of up to ∼10⁸ (8 orders of magnitude). The devices also demonstrate excellent electron and hole symmetry values with a record pn on-current symmetry of 1.03. Utilizing high-performance, scalable RFET devices with elevated symmetrical on-currents holds great promise for reducing delay and power consumption in future energy-efficient integrated circuitry.