Single Electron Transistor with <I>P</I>-Type Sidewall Spacer Gates

Abstract

A single-electron transistor (SET) is one of the promising solutions to overcome the scaling limit of the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET). Up to now, various kinds of SETs are being proposed and SETs with a dual gate (DG) structure using an electrical potential barrier have been demonstrated for room temperature operation. To operate DG-SETs, however, extra bias of side gates is necessary. It causes new problems that the electrode for side gates and the extra bias for electrical barrier increase the complexity in circuit design and operation power consumption, respectively. For the reason, a new mechanism using work function (WF) difference is applied to operate a SET at room temperature by three electrodes. Its structure consists of an undoped active region, a control gate, n-doped source/drain electrodes, and metal/silicide or p-type silicon side gates, and a SET with metal/silicide gates or p-type silicon gates forms tunnel barriers induced by work function between an undoped channel and grounded side gates. Via simulation, the effectiveness of the new mechanism is confirmed through various silicide materials that have different WF values. Furthermore, by considering the realistic conditions of the fabrication process, SET with p-type sidewall spacer gates was designed, and its brief fabrication process was introduced. The characteristics of its electrical barrier and the controllability of its control gate were also confirmed via simulation. Finally, a single-hole transistor with n-type sidewall spacer gates was designed.