Ultrafast nanoscale field effect transistor

Details Ultrafast nanoscale field effect transistor Ultrafast nanoscale field effect transistor

1999-11-19

2001-08-14

Meier, Stephen D. (Department: 2822)

Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diode

Field effect device

Having insulated electrode

C257S192000, C257S043000, C257S279000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06274916

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to field effect transistors (FET's) and more particularly to FET's which are capable of operating properly at nanoscale dimensions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is the universal switching device in current computer logic and memory technology. The on-chip density and speed of MOSFETs has doubled every few years, resulting in the high performance of present day logic and, following Moore's Law, in memory. However, recent predictions show that, in its present form with Si as the semiconductor and SiO
2
as the gate insulator, the MOSFET cannot be reduced in scale below a channel length of approximately 55 nm. This will result in less rapid performance improvement in logic chips, and eventually in performance saturation within a few years, unless significant design or material changes can be implemented within the relevant time frame.
The invention described below is a high performance nanoscale field effect transistor (nanoscale FET) designed to be fabricated at scales corresponding to a channel length on the order of 1 nm. The FET according to the invention, termed the “nanoscale FET”, is also an extremely fast switch. In terms of on-chip device density and device speed, the nanoscale FET offers an improvement of about 100 over current in-process technology, amounting to a factor of 10,000 improvement in speed-density. The invention achieves these improvements over current technology by material and design changes relative to existing MOSFET design practice, as described below.
One application for the nanoscale FET is in future hybrid logic and memory technology “computer on a chip” high performance systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a structure and method for an integrated circuit chip that includes a first conductor, a second conductor opposite the first conductor, a transition metal oxide below the first conductor and the second conductor, a gate insulator below the transition metal oxide region, and a gate conductor below the insulator. The gate insulator has a thickness and dielectric permittivity greater than that of the transition metal oxide. The dielectric permittivity is approximately 20 times higher than that of the transition metal oxide. The transition metal oxide includes conductively doped regions. The first conductor region and the second conductor region are positioned over the conductively doped regions of the channel region. The transition metal oxide includes undoped gaps between the conductively doped regions and the gate insulator. The distance between the first conductor and the second conductor is less than the thickness of the gate oxide region. The transition metal oxide has a carrier density of 10
14
cm
−2
carriers per unit area. The integrated circuit chip further includes an epitaxial interface between the transition metal oxide and the gate insulator.
Another embodiment of the invention is an integrated circuit chip that includes a source region, a drain region opposite the source region, a channel region below the source region and the drain region, a gate oxide region below the channel region, and a gate region below the gate oxide region. The channel region includes a transition metal oxide material. The gate oxide region has a thickness greater than that of the channel region and a dielectric permittivity higher than that of the transition metal oxide material.
As shown below, the invention is a high performance nanoscale field effect transistor (nanoscale FET) designed to be fabricated at scales corresponding to a channel length on the order of 1 nm. The inventive nanoscale FET is capable of being fabricated at on-chip densities on the order of 100 times that of current MOSFET devices, and to switch in times on the order of {fraction (1/100)} of current MOSFET devices (e.g., 283 fs).


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