Min Jin-Gi, Lee Dong-Hee, Kim Yeong-Ung, Cho Won-Ju
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 01897, Korea.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Feb 13;12(4):628. doi: 10.3390/nano12040628.
In this study, the efficient fabrication of nickel silicide (NiSi) Schottky barrier thin-film transistors (SB-TFTs) via microwave annealing (MWA) technology is proposed, and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) inverters are implemented in a simplified process using ambipolar transistor properties. To validate the efficacy of the NiSi formation process by MWA, NiSi is also prepared via the conventional rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. The Rs of the MWA NiSi decreases with increasing microwave power, and becomes saturated at 600 W, thus showing lower resistance than the 500 °C RTA NiSi. Further, SB-diodes formed on n-type and p-type bulk silicon are found to have optimal rectification characteristics at 600 W microwave power, and exhibit superior characteristics to the RTA SB-diodes. Evaluation of the electrical properties of NiSi SB-TFTs on excimer-laser-annealed (ELA) poly-Si substrates indicates that the MWA NiSi junction exhibits better ambipolar operation and transistor performance, along with improved stability. Furthermore, CMOS inverters, constructed using the ambipolar SB-TFTs, exhibit better voltage transfer characteristics, voltage gains, and dynamic inverting behavior by incorporating the MWA NiSi source-and-drain (S/D) junctions. Therefore, MWA is an effective process for silicide formation, and ambipolar SB-TFTs using MWA NiSi junctions provide a promising future for CMOS technology.
本研究提出了通过微波退火（MWA）技术高效制备硅化镍（NiSi）肖特基势垒薄膜晶体管（SB-TFT）的方法，并利用双极晶体管特性在简化工艺中实现了互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）反相器。为了验证MWA形成NiSi工艺的有效性，还通过传统的快速热退火（RTA）工艺制备了NiSi。MWA NiSi的Rs随微波功率的增加而降低，并在600W时达到饱和，因此其电阻低于500°C RTA NiSi。此外，发现在n型和p型体硅上形成的SB二极管在600W微波功率下具有最佳的整流特性，并且表现出优于RTA SB二极管的特性。对准分子激光退火（ELA）多晶硅衬底上NiSi SB-TFT的电学性能评估表明，MWA NiSi结表现出更好的双极操作和晶体管性能，以及更高的稳定性。此外，使用双极SB-TFT构建的CMOS反相器通过采用MWA NiSi源漏（S/D）结表现出更好的电压传输特性、电压增益和动态反相行为。因此，MWA是一种有效的硅化物形成工艺，使用MWA NiSi结的双极SB-TFT为CMOS技术提供了广阔的前景。
