Performance Improvement of Polycrystalline Silicon Nanowire Thin-Film Transistors by a High-k Capping Layer

Abstract

In this work, a novel polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) nanowire thin-film transistor (NW-TFT) with side-gated configuration and a high-k material capping was fabricated and characterized. It was found that the gate fringing field effect via the high-k passivation layer can effectively improve the device performance in terms of higher ON current, larger ON/OFF current ratio, and steeper subthreshold slope (SS). The drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect is also effectively suppressed owing to better gate control.