Data transmission performance of CVD grown sub-20 nm indium antimonide nanowires

Abstract

We investigated the data transmission performance of indium antimonide (InSb) nanowires (NWs) synthesized on InSb (100) substrate using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) having diameters below 20 nm. The data transmission measurement was accomplished over the NW field effect transistors (NWFETs) fabricated on Si/SiO2 substrates. Digital data stream is randomly generated and then uploaded to a waveform generator which generates the stream and transmits it repeatedly with the desired frequency. The signal was applied on the sources of the NWFETs and collected from the drains of the same devices. Collected data was first filtered with a low pass filter (LPF), and then the output of the filter was used to create the eye diagrams of the NWs. Bit error rate (BERs), attenuation , quality factor (Q-factor) and maximum data transmission are extracted from eye diagrams. The results indicate that the data transmission performance of NWs suffer from low mobility values on the order of 10-to-15 cm2V-1s-1 because of their small diameters, crystal defects and oxidation occurs during growth and cooling. 20 nm NWs can sustain data rates up to 10 mega bits per second (Mbps) and the data rate is directly proportional to the diameter of the NWs.