The rapid progress of complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit technology became feasible through continuous device scaling. The implementation of high-k/metal gates had a significantcontribution to this progress during the last decade. However, there are still challenges regarding the reliability of these devices. One of the main issues is the escalating 1/fnoise level, which leads to degradation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in electronic circuits. The focus of this thesis is on low-frequency noise characterization and modeling of various novel CMOS devices. The devices include PtSi Schottky-barriers  for source/drain contactsand different high-kgatestacksusingHfO2, LaLuO3 and Tm2O3 with different interlayers. These devices vary in the high-k material, high-k thickness, high-k deposition method and interlayermaterial. Comprehensive electrical characterization and low-frequency noise characterization were performed on various devices at different operating conditions. The noise results were analyzed and models were suggested in order to investigate the origin of 1/f noise in these devices. Moreover, the results were compared to state-of-the-art devices. High constant dielectrics limit the leakage current by offering a higher physical dielectric thickness while keeping the Equivalent Oxide Thickness (EOT) low. Yet, the 1/f noise increases due to higher number of traps in the dielectric and also deterioration of the interface with silicon compared to SiO2. Therefore, in order to improve the interface quality, applying an interfacial layer (IL) between the high-k layer and silicon is inevitable. Very thin, uniform insitu fabricated SiO2 interlayers with HfO2 high-k dielectric have been characterized. The required thickness of SiO2 as IL for further scaling has now reached below 0.5 nm. Thus, one of the main challenges at the current technology node is engineering the interfacial layer in order to achieve both high quality interface and low EOT. High-k ILs are therefore proposed to substitute SiOx dielectrics to fulfill this need. In this work, we have made the first experiments on low-frequency noise studies on TmSiO as a high-k interlayer with Tm2O3 or HfO2 on top as high-k dielectric. The TmSiO/Tm2O3 shows a lower level of noise which is suggested to be related to smoother interface between the TmSiO and Tm2O3. We have achieved excellentnoise performancefor TmSiO/Tm2O3 and TmSiO/HfO2 gate stacks which are comparableto state-of-the-art SiO2/HfO2 gate stacks. / <p>QC 20151130</p>

A wide variety of novel complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices that are strong contenders for future high-speed and low-noise RF circuits have been evaluated by means of static electrical measurements and low-frequency noise characterizations in this thesis. These novel field-effect transistors (FETs) include (i) compressively strained SiGe channel pMOSFETs, (ii) tensile strained Si nMOSFETs, (iii) MOSFETs with high-k gate dielectrics, (iv) metal gate and (v) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices. The low-frequency noise was comprehensively characterized for different types of operating conditions where the gate and bulk terminal voltages were varied. Detailed studies were made of the relationship between the 1/f noise and the device architecture, strain, device geometry, location of the conduction path, surface cleaning, gate oxide charges and traps, water vapour annealing, carrier mobility and other technological factors. The locations of the dominant noise sources as well as their physical mechanisms were investigated. Model parameters and physical properties were extracted and compared. Several important new insights and refinements of the existing 1/f noise theories and models were also suggested and analyzed. The continuing trend of miniaturizing device sizes and building devices with more advanced architectures and complex materials can lead to escalating 1/f noise levels, which degrades the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio in electronic circuits. For example, the 1/f noise of some critical transistors in a radio receiver may ultimately limit the information capacity of the communication system. Therefore, analyzing electronic devices in order to control and find ways to diminish the 1/f noise is a very important and challenging research subject. We present compelling evidence that the 1/f noise is affected by the distance of the conduction channel from the gate oxide/semiconductor substrate interface, or alternatively the vertical electric field pushing the carriers towards the gate oxide. The location of the conduction channel can be varied by the voltage on the bulk and gate terminals as well by device engineering. Devices with a buried channel architecture such as buried SiGe channel pMOSFETs and accumulation mode MOSFETs on SOI show significantly reduced 1/f noise. The same observation is made when the substrate/source junction is forward biased which decreases the vertical electric field in the channel and increases the inversion layer separation from the gate oxide interface. A 1/f noise model based on mobility fluctuations originating from the scattering of electrons with phonons or surface roughness was proposed. Materials with a high dielectric constant (high-k) is necessary to replace the conventional SiO2 as gate dielectrics in the future in order to maintain a low leakage current at the same time as the capacitance of the gate dielectrics is scaled up. In this work, we have made some of the very first examinations of 1/f noise in MOSFETs with high-k structures composed by layers of HfO2, HfAlOx and Al2O3. The 1/f noise level was found to be elevated (up to 3 orders of magnitude) in the MOSFETs with high-k gate dielectrics compared to the reference devices with SiO2. The reason behind the higher 1/f noise is a high density of traps in the high-k stacks and increased mobility fluctuation noise, the latter possibly due to noise generation in the electron-phonon scattering that originates from remote phonon modes in the high-k. The combination of a TiN metal gate, HfAlOx and a compressively strained surface SiGe channel was found to be superior in terms of both high mobility and low 1/f noise. / QC 20100928

The goal of this thesis has been to throw light on a selection of open problems in chemical and biological physics using the general principles of statistical mechanics. These problems are all broadly concerned with the role of fluctuations in the dynamics of macromolecular systems. More specifically, they are concerned with identifying the microscopic roots of a number of interesting and unusual effects, including fractional viscoelasticity, anomalous chain cyclization dynamics in crowded environments, subdifffusion in hair bundles, symmetries in the work distributions of stretched polymers, heterogeneities in the geometries of reptation channels in polymer melts, and non-Gaussianity in the distributions of the end products of gene expression. I have shown here that all these effects are expressions of essentially the same underlying process of stochasticity, which can be described in terms of the dynamics of a point particle or a continuous curve that evolves in simple potentials under the action of white or colored Gaussian noise [8]. I have also shown that this minimal model of time-dependent behavior in condensed phases is amenable to analysis, often exactly, by path integral methods [13-15], which are naturally suited to the treatment of random processes in many-body physics. The results of such analyses are theoretical expressions for various experimentally measured quantities, comparisons with which form the basis for developing physical intuition about the phenomena under study. The general success of this approach to the study of stochasticity in biophysics and molecular biology holds out hopes of its application to other unsolved problems in these fields. These include electrical transport in DNA [143], quantum coherence in photosynthesis [144], power generation in molecular motors [145], cell signaling and chemotaxis [146], space dependent diffusion [147], and self-organization of active matter [148], to name a few. Most of these problems are characterized by non-linearities of one kind or another, so they add a new layer of complexity to the problems considered in this thesis. Although path integral and related field theoretic methods are equipped to handle such complexities, the attendant calculations are expected to be non-trivial, and the challenge to theory will be to devise effective approximation schemes for these methods, or to develop new and more sophisticated methods altogether.

The quantum properties of matter waves, in particular quantum correlations and entanglement are an important frontier in atom optics with applications in quantum metrology and quantum information. In this thesis, we report the first observation of sub-Poissonian fluctuations in the magnetization of a spinor 87Rb condensate. The fluctuations in the magnetization are reduced up to 10 dB below the classical shot noise limit. This relative number squeezing is indicative of the predicted pair-correlations in a spinor condensate and lay the foundation for future experiments involving spin-squeezing and entanglement measurements. We have investigated the limits of the imaging techniques used in our lab, absorption and fluorescence imaging, and have developed the capability to measure atoms numbers with an uncertainly < 10 atoms. Condensates as small as ≈ 10 atoms were imaged and the measured fluctuations agree well with the theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we implement a reliable calibration method of our imaging system based on quantum projection noise measurements. We have resolved the individual lattice sites of a standing-wave potential created by a CO2 laser, which has a lattice spacing of 5.3 µm. Using microwaves, we site-selectively address and manipulate the condensate and therefore demonstrate the ability to perturb the lattice condensate of a local level. Interference between condensates in adjacent lattice sites and lattice sites separated by a lattice site are observed.