Not available / text

Not available

The continuous improvement in the semiconductor industry has been successfully achieved by the reducing dimensions of CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology. For the last four decades, the scaling down of physical thickness of SiO₂ gate dielectrics has improved the speed of output drive current by shrinking of transistor area in front-end-process of integrated circuits. A higher number of transistors on chip resulting in faster speed and lower cost can be allowable by the scaling down and these fruitful achievements have been mainly made by the thinning thickness of one key component - Gate Dielectric - at Si based MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor) devices. So far, SiO₂ (silicon dioxide) gate dielectric having the excellent material and electrical properties such as good interface (i.e., Dit ~ 2x10¹⁰ eV⁻¹cm⁻²), low gate leakage current, higher dielectric breakdown immunity (≥10MV/cm) and excellent thermal stability at typical Si processing temperature has been popularly used as the leading gate oxide material. The next generation Si based MOSFETs will require more aggressive gate oxide scaling to meet the required specifications. Since high-k dielectrics provide the same capacitance with a thicker film, the leakage current reduction, therefore, less the standby power consumption is one of the huge advantages. Also, it is easier to fabricate during the process because the control of film thickness is still not in the critical range compared to the same leakage current characteristic of SiO₂ film. HfO₂ based gate dielectric is considered as the most promising candidate among materials being studied since it shows good characteristics with conventional Si technology and good device performance has been reported. However, it has still many problems like insufficient thermals stability on silicon such as low crystallization temperature, low k interfacial regrowth, charge trapping and so on. The integration of hafnium based high-k dielectric into CMOS technology is also limited by major issues such as degraded channel mobility and charge trapping. One approach to overcome these obstacles is using alternative substrate materials such as SiGe, GaAs, InGaAs, and InP to improve channel mobility. / text

Amorphous oxide semiconductors are of potential interest in the display industry due to their high carrier mobility, transparency at visible wavelengths and excellent operational stability. In this dissertation, n-channel zinc-tin oxide thin-film transistors are fabricated based on a solution-based deposition approach, which allows low fabrication cost and high throughput. The effects of device configuration and process conditions on transistor performance are investigated, and circuit applications including inverters, amplifiers, and ring oscillators are demonstrated. Charge transport in the zinc-tin oxide field-effect transistors is also investigated. A transition from thermally-activated to band-like transport is observed with increasing carrier concentration in high mobility samples, which agrees well with the key predictions of the multiple trap and release model and also Mott’s mobility edge model. In addition, velocity distribution of charge carriers is studied with a time-resolved technique. This provides a more detailed picture of charge transport in field-effect transistors. P-channel organic semiconductor field-effect transistors are also investigated with a view to combine them with n-channel amorphous oxide transistors to create a hybrid organic-inorganic complementary technology. / text

Not available / text

Amorphous Oxide semiconductors have gained large interest in the display industry owing to their high carrier mobilities and low fabrication costs. In this thesis, n-channel solution based zinc-tin oxide (ZTO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are studied from a circuit design perspective. The study includes an iterative process of circuit design, layout and test procedure of the fabricated devices in the lab. The device models used in circuit simulations are refined following the data fed back from each of these iterations which has enabled more accurate design of complex circuits using ZTO devices. The requirement and development of a physical compact model for performing accurate and predictive circuit simulations has been presented. The use of ZTO devices in low cost, transparent and flexible electronic applications has been investigated through the study of basic circuit blocks such as amplifiers, ring oscillators, inverters and a four stage Operational Amplifier. / text

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The process of designing high power RF amplifiers has in the past relied heavily on measurements, in conjunction with simple linear theory. With the advent of the harmonic balance method and increasingly faster computers, CAD techniques can be of great value in designing these nonlinear circuits. Relatively little work has been done in modelling RF power MOSFETs. The methods described in numerous papers for the nonlinear modelling of microwave GaAsFETs cannot be applied easily to these high power devices. This thesis describes a modelling procedure applicable to RF MOSFETs rated at over 100 W. This is achieved by the use of cold S parameters and pulsed drain current measurements taken at controlled temperatures. A method of determining the required device thermal impedance is given. A complete nonlinear equivalent circuit model is extracted for an MRF136 MOSFET, a 28 V, 15 W device. This includes two nonlinear capacitors. An equation is developed to describe accurately the drain current as a function of the internal gate and drain voltages. The model parameters are found by computer optimisation with measured data. Techniques for modelling the passive components in RF power amplifiers are given. These include resistors, inductors, capacitors, and ferrite transformers. Although linear ferrite transformer models are used, nonlinear forms are also investigated. The accuracy of the MOSFET model is verified by comparison to large signal measurements in a 50 0 system. A complete power amplifier using the MRF136, operating from 118 MHz to 175 MHz is built and analysed. The accuracy of predictions is generally within 10 % for output power and DC supply current, and around 30 % for input impedance. An amplifier is designed using the CAD package, and then built, requiring only a small final adjustment of the input matching circuit. The computer based methods described lead quickly to a near-optimal design and reduce the need for extensive high power measurements. The use of nonlinear analysis programs is thus established as a valuable design tool for engineers working with RF power amplifiers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1992.

No description available.