<p>As thefundamentallimits of two-dimensional(2D)geometric scaling of commercial transistors are being reached, there is tremendous demand for new materials and process innovations that can keep delivering performance improvements for future generations of computing chips. One major avenue being explored istheincorporation ofan increasing degree of three-dimensionality by vertically stacking logic and memory layerswith high-density interconnections.In this dissertation, high-performanceultra-thin amorphousindium oxide transistors are demonstrated as an excellent candidate for these back-end-of-line (BEOL) and monolithic 3D (M3D) integration applications.</p>
<p>A major pain-point in the development of BEOL and M3D systems is the strict thermal budget imposed –once the bottom layer of devices is fabricated, they can generally withstand no more than 400 °C. It is exceedingly difficult to directly deposit single-crystal material at these temperatures, and polycrystalline materials will have grain boundary instability issues. Amorphous materials generally have low carrier mobilities, which would seemingly remove them from contention as well. Indium oxideand itsclass of related metal oxides are exceptions. Indium oxideis a wide bandgap semiconductor with high electron mobility up to about 100 cm<sup>2</sup>/V∙s in amorphous form. Ithas a strong preference for native degenerate n-type doping which has hindered prior devices fabricated with it. In this dissertation, extremely thin layers on the order of 1 nm thick are used for which quantum confinement effects widen the bandgap further, reliably enabling gate-controllable carrier densitiesand demonstration of excellent transistor performance with a low thermal budget of just 225 °C.</p>
<p>Detailed characterization is performed down to 40 nm channel lengths revealing excellent transistor characteristics includingenhancement-mode operation withon currents greater than 2 A/μm, low subthreshold swing,and high on/off ratios due to the wide bandgap. Subsequent chaptersdemonstrate the fundamental lower limits of off current around 6 ×10<sup>-20 </sup>A/μmby a novel measurement technique, good gate bias stress stability behaviorwith small parameter drift at silicon complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic voltages, and high-frequency operationin the GHz regime enabling easy operation at CMOS clock frequencies.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/20063711 |
| Date | 14 June 2022 |
| Creators | Adam R Charnas (12868358) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Atomically_Thin_Indium_Oxide_Transistors_for_Back-end-of-line_Applications/20063711 |
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