Investigation of III-V Semiconductor Heterostructures for Post-Si-CMOS Applications
Date
2015-07
Authors
Bhatnagar, Kunal
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Abstract
Silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology in the past few decades has been driven by aggressive device scaling to increase performance, reduce cost and lower power consumption. However, as devices are scaled below the 100 nm region, performance gain has become increasingly difficult to obtain by traditional scaling. As we move towards advanced technology nodes, materials innovation and physical architecture are becoming the primary enabler for performance enhancement in CMOS technology rather than scaling. One class of materials that can potentially result in improved electrical performance are III-V semiconductors, which are ideal candidates for replacing the channel in Si CMOS owing to their high electron mobilities and capabilities for band-engineering. This work is aimed towards the growth and characterization of III-V semiconductor heterostructures and their application in post-Si-CMOS devices. The two main components of this study include the integration of III-V compound semiconductors on silicon for tunnel-junction Esaki diodes, and the investigation of carrier transport properties in low-power III-V n-channel FETs under uniaxial strain for advanced III-V CMOS solutions. The integration of III-V compound semiconductors with Si can combine the cost advantage and maturity of the Si technology with the superior performance of III-V materials. We have demonstrated high quality epitaxial growth of GaAs and GaSb on Si (001) wafers through the use of various buffer layers including AlSb and crystalline SrTiO3. These GaSb/Si virtual substrates were used for the fabrication and characterization of InAs/GaSb broken-gap Esaki-tunnel diodes as a possible solution for heterojunction Tunnel-FETs. In addition, the carrier transport properties of InAs <110> channels were evaluated under uniaxial strain for the potential use of strain solutions in III-V CMOS.
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Keywords
III-V Semiconductors, Heterointegration, Strain technology, Molecular Beam Epitaxy, Low-power TunnelFETs, Heterojunction Esaki Diodes, Post-Si-CMOS solutions
Citation
Bhatnagar, K. (2015). <i>Investigation of III-V semiconductor heterostructures for Post-Si-CMOS applications</i> (Unpublished dissertation). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.