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A comprehensive study of atomic-layer deposited thulium oxide (Tm2O3) on germanium has been conducted using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), vacuum ultra-violet variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. The valence band offset is found to be 3.05±0.2eV for Tm2O3/p-Ge from the Tm 4d centroid and Ge 3p3/2 charge-corrected XPS core-level spectra taken at different sputtering times of a single bulk thulium oxide sample. A negligible downward band bending of ∼0.12eV is observed during progressive differential charging of Tm 4d peaks. The optical band gap is estimated from the absorption edge and found to be 5.77eV with an apparent Urbach tail signifying band gap tailing at ∼5.3eV. The latter has been correlated to HRTEM and electron diffraction results corroborating the polycrystalline nature of the Tm2O3 films. The Tm2O3/Ge interface is found to be rather atomically abrupt with sub-nanometer thickness. In addition, the band line-up of reference GeO2/n-Ge stacks obtained by thermal oxidation has been discussed and derived. The observed low reactivity of thulium oxide on germanium as well as the high effective barriers for holes (∼3eV) and electrons (∼2eV) identify Tm2O3 as a strong contender for interfacial layer engineering in future generations of scaled high-κ gate stacks on Ge., QC 20150629

A steady improvement in material quality and process technology has made electronic silicon carbide devices commercially available. Both rectifying and switched devices can today be purchased from several vendors. This successful SiC development over the last 25 years can also be utilized for other types of devices, such as light emitting and photovoltaic devices, however, there are still critical problems related to material properties and reliability that need to be addressed. This contribution will focus on surface passivation of SiC devices. This issue is of utmost importance for further development of SiC MOSFETs, which so far has been limited by reliability and low charge carrier surface mobilities. Also bipolar devices, such as BJTs, LEDs, or PV devices will benefit from more efficient and reliable surface passivation techniques in order to maintain long charge carrier lifetimes. Silicon carbide material enables the devices to operate at higher electric fields, higher temperatures and in more radiation dense applications than silicon devices. To be able to utilize the full potential of the SiC material, it is therefore necessary to develop passivation layers that can sustain these more demanding operation conditions. In this presentation it will also be shown that passivation layers of Al2O3 deposited by atomic layer deposition have shown superior radiation hardness properties compared to traditional SiO2-based passivation layers., QC 20140808

The impact of thermal post deposition annealing in oxygen at different temperatures on the Ge/Y2O3 interface is investigated using metal oxide semiconductor capacitors, where the yttrium oxide was grown by atomic layer deposition from tris(methylcyclopentadienyl) yttrium and H2O precursors on n-type (100)-Ge substrates. By performing in-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the growth of GeO during the first cycles of ALD was proven and interface trap densities just below 1 x 10(11) eV(-1) cm(-2) were achieved by oxygen annealing at high temperatures (550 degrees C-600 degrees C). The good interface quality is most likely driven by the growth of interfacial GeO2 and thermally stabilizing yttrium germanate., QC 20150109

We present an overview study of two germanium interface engineering routes, firstly a germanate formation via La2O3 and Y2O3, and secondly a barrier layer approach using Al2O3 and Tm2O3. The interfacial composition, uniformity, thickness, band gap, crystallinity, absorption features and valence band offset are determined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultra violet variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The correlation of these results with electrical characterization data make a case for Ge interface engineering with rare-earth inclusion as a viable route to achieve high performance Ge CMOS., QC 20150608

We experimentally demonstrate DC functionality of graphene-based hot electron transistors, which we call graphene base transistors (GBT). The fabrication scheme is potentially compatible with silicon technology and can be carried out at the wafer scale with standard silicon technology. The state of the GBTs can be switched by a potential applied to the transistor base, which is made of graphene. Transfer characteristics of the GBTs show ON/OFF current ratios exceeding 10(4)., QC 20130522

The electrical and chemical properties of high-k dielectric stacks consisting of Hafnium oxide (HfO2) and Aluminum oxide (Al 2O3) deposited on 4H-SiC have been investigated by preparing metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) structures of HfO 2/Al2O3/SiC. The bilayer gate stack was deposited by using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The samples were also treated by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 970°C for 5 mins in an inert gas atmosphere. Structural properties of the deposited films were analyzed with X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). Capacitance-voltage (CV) measurements performed on as-deposited and RTA treated structures at room temperature show that the RTA treatment increases the effective oxide charges in the whole dielectric but decreases the interface trap density. Current-voltage (IV) measurements have been performed in order to extract the leakage current density as well as the breakdown characteristics of the stack. Our results show that a combination of HfO2 and Al2O3 can be a better choice for SiC than individual Al2O3 layer because of the higher value of effective dielectric constant. It is shown that the stacked dielectrics are stable at high temperatures and under annealing conditions up to 300°C, which makes the layers compatible with SiC device processing and higher operating temperatures compared to silicon., QC 20140115

Interfacial layer (IL) control in high-k/metal gate stacks is crucial in achieving good interface quality, mobility, and reliability. A process is developed for the formation of a thulium silicate IL that can be integrated as a replacement for conventional chemical oxide ILs in gate-last high-k/metal gate CMOS process. A straightforward process integration scheme for thulium silicate IL is demonstrated, based on self-limiting silicate formation in inert gas atmosphere and with good selectivity of the etching step. The thulium silicate IL is shown to provide 0.25~{!@~}0.15 nm equivalent oxide thickness of the IL while preserving excellent electrical quality of the interface with Si. An interface state density ~0.7-21011 cm-2eV-1 was obtained at flat-band condition, and the nFET and pFET subthreshold slopes were 70 mV/dec. The inversion layer mobility was 20% higher than for the reference SiOx/HfO2 gate stack. Specifically, the measured mobility values were 230 cm2/ Vs for nFET and 60 cm2/Vs for pFET devices, at an inversion charge density of 1013 cm?2 and at a total capacitance equivalent thickness of 1.6 nm., QC 20131029

This paper investigates the band line-up and optical properties (dielectric function) of Tm2O3/Ge gate stacks deposited by atomic layer deposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been performed to ascertain the shallow core levels (Ge3d and Tm4d) in ultra-thin and bulk Tm2O3/Ge stacks as well as valence band maxima in Ge and bulk Tm2O3. The valence band offset of Tm2O3/Ge has been found to be 2.95 +/- 0.08 eV. Vacuum ultra violet variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry studies reveal the indirect band gap nature of Tm2O3, with the value extracted from the Tauc method of 5.3 +/- 0.1 eV. A distinct absorption feature is observed at similar to 3.2 eV below the band gap of Tm2O3, and clearly distinguished from the Si and Ge critical points. A dielectric constant of 14 to 15 has been derived from the electrical measurements on 5 nm Tm2O3/epi Ge/Si gate stacks. The band line-up study of Tm2O3/Ge implies an acceptable barrier for holes (2.95 eV) and electrons (greater than 1.7 eV) for Ge MOSFET engineering., QC 20130813

A novel process for atomic layer deposition of thulium oxide (Tm2O3) has been developed, employing TmCp3 as metal precursor and H2O as oxidizing agent. The use of a highly reactive oorganometallic precursor eliminates the need for a strong oxidizing agent (such as O-3) and provides a high deposition rate of similar to 1.5 angstrom/cycle. A thorough characterization of the process has been performed, identifying true ALD-type film growth in the temperature range 200-300 degrees C. The ALD process has been further investigated by extensive physical and electrical characterization of the deposited films in terms of-composition, crystalline phase, surface roughness and extraction of the dielectric constant. The films were found to be oxygen-rich Tm2O3, with low carbon impurity content at low deposition temperature and after annealing at 600 degrees C. The developed process produced polycrystalline films, with a surface roughness <1 nm RMS. Integration in MOS capacitors demonstrated well-behaved CV curves after annealing at 600 degrees C, with a relative dielectric constant of similar to 16., QC 20131220

Silicon photonic integrated circuits are promising solutions for high speed on-chip data communication. Producing crystalline silicon optical waveguides at the backend of the IC process flow requires wafer-bonding and a deep substrate etching of an SOI wafer. Fabrication of optical interconnects is less complex and more cost effective if deposited amorphous silicon can be used instead. Amorphous silicon on the other hand suffers from a high absorption. Slot waveguide is a suitable solution for integration of alternative materials with silicon waveguides. Active devices with slot waveguides have been reported by Ramirez et al where the slot layer is doped with rare-earth metals to generate light. In this work successful fabrication and characterization of CMOS compatible low loss high-k amorphous silicon slot waveguides is reported., QC 20140116

The possibility of integrating thulium silicate as IL (interfacial layer) in scaled high-klmetal gate stacks is explored. Electrical properties of the silicate IL are investigated in MOS capacitor structures for the silicate formation temperature range 500-900 degrees C. Results are compared to lanthanum silicate. A CMOS-compatible process flow for silicate formation is demonstrated, providing EOT of the IL as low as 0.1-0.3 nm and interface state density at flatband below 2.10(11) cm(-2)eV(-1). The silicate IL is found to be compatible with both gate-last and gate-first process flows, with a maximum thermal budget of 1000 degrees C., QC 20131106

Highly ordered arrays of silicon nanopillars are etched by means of induced-coupled-plasma reactive-ion etching (RIE). The sulfur hexafluoride/oxygen (SF6/O-2)-based cryogenic process allows etching of nanopillars with an aspect ratio higher than 20:1 and diameters down to 30 nm. Diameters can be further reduced by a well-controllable oxidation process in O-2-ambient and a subsequent etching in hydrofluoric acid. This approach effectively removes surface contaminations induced by former RIE, as shown by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to establish an all-around Al2O3/Pt stack onto the vertically aligned nanorods. Two approaches are successfully applied to remove the resistant Pt coating from the nanopillar tips., QC 20120827

This work addresses the issue of interfacial layer formation in scaled high-k/metal gate stacks: the possibility of growing a thin SiOx interfacial layer in situ in a commercial ALD reactor has been evaluated, employing ozone-based Si oxidation. Three techniques (O3, O3/H2O and Pulsed) have been developed to grow scaled sub-nm interfacial layers and have been integrated in MOS capacitors and MOSFETs. A comparison based on electrical characterization shows that the performance of the proposed in situ methods is comparable or superior to that of existing ex situ techniques; specifically, the O3 method can grow aggressively scaled interfacial layers (4-5 A) while preserving the electrical quality of the stack., QC 20120803

In this work, we propose an integration approach for double gate graphene field effect transistors. The approach includes a number of process steps that are key for microelectronics integration: bottom gates with ultra-thin (2nm) high-quality thermally grown SiO2 dielectrics, shallow trench isolation between devices and atomic layer deposited Al2O3 top gate dielectrics. The complete process flow is demonstrated with fully functional GFET transistors and can be extended to wafer scale processing and other graphene-based devices., QC 20130114

Silicon-on-insulator(SOI) novel on-chip grating couplers for double slot high-k waveguides are experimentally demonstrated. The devices were fabricated with standard CMOS process technology. The grating couplers were designed for the best performance at the C-band communication range. Two thin layers of aluminum oxide formed the slot region of the waveguide. The high-k layers were deposited using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. A reliable process was realized by etching the structures to the buried oxide. Effect of the top oxide cladding layer on the efficiency was studied. The grating couplers had a measured efficiency of 22% at 1.55μm wavelength. This efficiency is competitive to other results reported by other groups., QC 20130114

Novel on-chip double slot high-k waveguide grating couplers have been successfully fabricated, and characterized. Silicon cannot yet be directly used for light generation and modulation in photonic devices because of its weak nonlinear optical effects. Slot waveguide is a solution to this problem, this structure consists of silicon and low refractive index material layers as the active material[1, 2]. Previously, grating couplers were demonstrated for horizontal single slot SiO 2 waveguides [3, 4]. Double slot waveguide is of great interest since the confinement of the optical power in the active material is significantly larger. Atomic layer deposited (ALD) high-k aluminum oxide (Al 2O 3) was used as the slot layer because of a superior layer quality and thickness uniformity. The ultimate goal of this work is the demonstration of the highly reproducible on-chip photonic devices., QC 20121121