Technology for fabrication of suspended sub-5 nm silicon nanowires and applications thereafter


Technology for fabrication of suspended sub-5 nm silicon nanowires and applications thereafter

Petkov, N.; Georgiev, Y. M.

Si nanowires (Si NWs) are very promising as channels for field effect transistors (FETs) and also as sensing devices. When the NW diameter is in the sub-10 nm range, quantum confinement of carriers is observed at room temperature, which is very appealing from scientific and application point of view.

This paper will present a technology for fabrication of sub-5 nm suspended Si NWs on silicon-on-insulator wafers. News of 20 nm width are first defined in the top Si layer by electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Then the NWs are subjected to three consecutive cycles of rapid thermal oxidation in oxygen atmosphere and wet etching in hydrofluoric acid. The resulting suspended Si NWs have high-quality crystalline structure and sub-5 nm size.

The possible applications of such NWs will be discussed, including FET-based Si NW chemo-/biosensors as well as gate all around (GAA) FETs. Additionally, the development of self-aligned nickel silicide NW contacts will be presented. The formation mechanism was examined by in-situ electron microscopy as a function of NW diameter and surface oxide.

Keywords: Silicon nanowires; field effect transistors (FETs); nanowire sensors; silicon-on-insulator; nickel silicide; electron beam lithography

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Publ.-Id: 27044