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Viscosities of molten GaSb and InSb as III–V compound semiconductors were measured using an oscillating viscometer to study the thermophysical properties of semiconductor melts. A specially designed quartz crucible was used to prevent the evaporation of Sb from the melts. The measurements were performed in the temperature ranges from the melting point to about 1490 K for GaSb and from supercooled temperatures to about 1340 K for InSb. The viscosities obtained for both GaSb and InSb showed good Arrhenius linearity despite their wide temperature ranges. The activation energies of GaSb and InSb were almost the same, although the absolute viscosity of GaSb was slightly higher than that of InSb. It was concluded that most semiconductors including Si and Ge show Arrhenius behavior and have a low viscosity. The reason for the low viscosity is considered to be related to their melt structure, which may be similar to that of molten metals with low melting points.

The density of molten silicon was measured using a newly developed pycnometer made of boron nitride. The present method has many advantages for measuring the density of molten silicon, which has a high temperature and can be easily oxidized. The pycnometer was precisely machined, and its volume at high temperatures was acculately determined. The procedure to overflow the excess melt was carried out in a closed apparatus under a helium atmosphere. A special procedure was introduced to avoid the error generated by the volume expansion of silicon when it solidified. The total uncertainty of the measurement was estimated to be within 0.5%. The measured density showed a linear relationship with respect to temperature and agreed well with literature values. The expansion coefficient of molten silicon was similar to those of typical molten metals in spite of the low expansion coefficient of solid silicon. This suggested that the structural change of molten silicon was similar to those of typical metals.

This paper reports tri-gate sub-100 nm In0.53Ga0.47As QW MOSFETs with electrostatic immunity of S = 77 mV/dec., DIBL = 10 mV/V, together with excellent carrier transport of gm, max > 1.5 mS/μm, at VDS = 0.5 V. This result is the best balance of gm, max and S in any reported III-V MOSFETs. In addition, extracted compact model parameter including (μ0 = 760 cm2/V-s and peak vx0 = 1.6×107 cm/s) indicate that InGaAs Tri-Gate MOSFETs would be a viable pathway to sub-10nm technology node.

A new technique to evaluate the plasma-induced gate oxide damage is proposed. The pre-tunneling leakage current in a MOS capacitor appears after the plasma process, and the magnitude has a close relation with the degree of oxide damage. By measuring this leakage current, a continuous change of plasma damage can be detected.