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An actively body-bias controlled (ABC) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) static random access memory (SRAM) connecting the bodies of the access and the driver transistors with the word line is proposed to realize high-speed and low-voltage operation. We developed the direct body contact to apply forward biases to the bodies without increases in the area penalty and the parasitic gate capacitance. An increase of the standby current does not occur because the body biases are not applied when the word-line voltage is low level. It is demonstrated that a significant speed improvement and a reduction of performance variations for the SRAM are achieved by applying the body bias. Neutron-accelerated soft-error tests reveal that the ABC structure suppresses soft-error events due to the body-tied SOI structure. In summary, the ABC SOI technology is one of the countermeasures for emerging generations.

We point out for the first time that floating-body effects cause the reduction of the saturation drive current in partially depleted (PD) Sol MOSFETs. It is demonstrated that when the channel concentration of the SOI MOSFETs is set higher in order to suppress the increase of the off current caused by floating-body effects, the drive current decreases due to the large body effect. In the conventional SOI structure where the source-drain junction is in contact with the buried oxide, the 0.18 /spl mu/m floating PD SOI MOSFET suffers around 17% decrease in the drive current under the same threshold voltage (V/sub th/) in comparison with body-fixed one. However, floating ID SOI MOSFETs show smaller V/sub th/-roll-off. Further considering the short channel effect down to the minimum gate length of 0.16 /spl mu/m, the current decrease becomes 6%. Also, we propose a floating PD SOI MOSFET with shallow source-drain junction (SSD) structure to suppress the floating-body effects. By using the SSD structure, we confirmed an increase in the drive current.

A 0.18 /spl mu/m silicon on insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology using hybrid trench isolation with high resistivity substrate is proposed and its feasibility for embedded RF/analog applications is demonstrated. The hybrid trench isolation is a combination of partial trench isolation and full trench isolation. In the partial trench isolation region, a part of the SOI layer remains under the field oxide so as to provide scalable body-tied SOI metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), while in the full trench isolation region, the whole of the SOI layer is replaced by the field oxide so as to provide high quality passives. It is demonstrated that this technology improves the maximum oscillation frequency and the minimum noise figure of the MOSFET and the Q-factor of the inductor, compared with bulk technology. Moreover, it is verified that the partial-trench-isolated body-tied structure suppresses the floating body effect of SOI devices for RF/analog applications and thus guarantees low-noise characteristics, stability, linearity, and reliability. It is concluded that this technology will be one of the key technologies for supporting the evolution of wireless communications.

The substrate-bias effect and source-drain breakdown characteristics in body-tied short-channel silicon-on-insulator metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (SOI MOSFET's) were investigated. Here, "substrate bias" is the body bias in the SOI MOSFET itself. It was found that the transistor body becomes fully depleted and the transistor is released from the substrate-bias effect, when the body is reverse-biased. Moreover, it was found that the source-drain breakdown voltage for reverse-bias is as high as that for zero-bias. This phenomenon was analyzed using a three-dimensional (3-D) device simulation considering the body-tied SOI MOSFET structure in which the body potential is fixed from the side of the transistor. This analysis revealed that holes which are generated in the transistor are effectively pulled out to the body electrode, and the body potential for reverse-bias remains lower than that for zero-bias, and therefore, the source-drain breakdown characteristics does not deteriorate for reverse-bias. Further, the influence of this effect upon circuit operation was investigated. The body-tied configuration of SOI devices is very effective in exploiting merits of SOI and in suppressing the floating body-effect, and is revealed to be one of the most promising candidates for random logic circuits such as gate arrays and application specific integrated circuits.

A reliable tantalum (Ta)-gate device technology, which can drastically reduce the number of process steps, has been developed. Ta-gate fully-depleted-silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) MOSFETs with 0.15-/spl mu/m gate length by low-temperature processing below 500/spl deg/C after the gate oxide formation have good on/off characteristics. Comprehensive design guidelines for Ta-gate MOSFETs in the deep-submicrometer regime is provided by investigating a wide range of performance and reliability constraints on the process temperature and the SOI thickness. In the guideline, the recrystallization of the source/drain region gives inferior limits of the SOI thickness and the process temperature. Thermal reaction between Ta and SiO/sub 2/ films sets a superior limit of the process temperature, and a short-channel effect sets a superior limit of the SOI thickness.

The threshold voltages of thin-film fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) nMOS and pMOS have been controlled by employing tantalum (Ta) as the gate materials. Ta-gate FDSOI MOSFET's have excellent threshold voltage control for 1.0 V application on low impurity concentration SOI layers in both nMOS and pMOS. The low-temperature processing after the gate oxidation step leads to good on/off characteristics in Ta-gate SOI MOSFET's because of no reaction between Ta gate electrode and SiO/sub 2/ gate insulator. This technology makes it possible to drastically decrease the number of the process steps for CMOS fabrication, because the same gate material is available for both nMOS and pMOS.