Nanometer-Scale III-V MOSFETs

© 2013 IEEE. After 50 years of Moore's Law, Si CMOS, the mainstream logic technology, is on a course of diminishing returns. The use of new semiconductor channel materials with improved transport properties over Si offer the potential for device scaling to nanometer dimensions and continued progress. Among new channel materials, III-V compound semiconductors are particularly promising. InGaAs is currently the most attractive candidate for future III-V based n-type MOSFETs while InGaSb is of great interest for p-channel MOSFETs. At the point of most likely deployment, devices based on these semiconductors will have a highly three-dimensional architecture. This paper reviews recent progress toward the development of nanoscale III-V MOSFETs based on InGaAs and InGaSb with emphasis on scalable technologies and device architectures and relevant physics. Progress in recent times has been brisk but much work remains to be done before III-V CMOS can become a reality.