Super-steep switching device and inverter device using the same
12211849 ยท 2025-01-28
Assignee
Inventors
- Hae Ju Choi (Suwon-si, KR)
- Tae Ho KANG (Seoul, KR)
- Chan Woo KANG (Incheon, KR)
- Hyeon Je Son (Suwon-si, KR)
- Jin Hong PARK (Seoul, KR)
- Sung Joo Lee (Seongnam-si, KR)
- Sung Pyo BAEK (Suwon-si, KR)
Cpc classification
H10D84/856
ELECTRICITY
H10D30/6757
ELECTRICITY
H02M7/537
ELECTRICITY
H10D30/673
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H02M7/537
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
A super-steep switching device is provided. The super-steep switching device may include a substrate, a semiconductor channel on the substrate, a source electrode and a drain electrode, which are disposed on the semiconductor channel and spaced apart from each other, a gate electrode overlapping a portion of the semiconductor channel and not overlapping a remaining portion of the semiconductor channel, and an insulating layer disposed between the gate electrode and the semiconductor channel and covering an entire surface of the semiconductor channel.
Claims
1. A super-steep switching device comprising: a semiconductor channel disposed on a substrate and formed of a semiconductor material having an impact ionization property; a source electrode and a drain electrode, which are contacted with the semiconductor channel and spaced apart from each other on the substrate; a gate electrode only overlapping a portion of the semiconductor channel; and an insulating layer disposed between the gate electrode and the semiconductor channel and covering an entire surface of the semiconductor channel, wherein a top surface of the semiconductor channel comprises a first area overlapping the gate electrode, and a second area not overlapping the gate electrode, wherein the first area has the length of 1 m and the second area has the length in a range of 100 to 400 nm, wherein the gate electrode is formed only on the portion of the semiconductor channel adjacent to the source electrode, wherein the semiconductor channel is formed of a two-dimensional semiconductor material being WSe.sub.2, wherein a Subthreshold Swing value of the super-steep switching device is 3.54.0 mV/dec, wherein a voltage for generating an electric field having an intensity higher than a critical electric field intensity, and lower than a breakdown electric field intensity is applied to the drain electrode, wherein the critical electric field intensity is a minimum electric field intensity at which avalanche carrier multiplication occurs in the first area, wherein the breakdown electric field intensity is an electric field intensity at which breakdown occurs in the first area, and wherein a gate voltage is applied to the gate electrode simultaneously with the application of the voltage to the drain electrode, such that the avalanche carrier multiplication phenomenon occurs in the first area.
2. An inverter device comprising: a super-steep switching device according to claim 1; and a pull-up transistor connected in series with the super-steep switching device and capable of operating complementarily with the super-steep switching device.
3. The inverter device of claim 2, wherein a gate electrode of the pull-up transistor and the gate electrode of the super-steep switching device are electrically connected to each other so that the same gate voltage is applied thereto.
4. The inverter device of claim 2, wherein a semiconductor layer of the pull-up transistor is made of n-type semiconductor material, wherein the n-type semiconductor material includes one selected from a group consisting of molybdenum disulfide (MoS.sub.2), indium selenide (In.sub.2Se.sub.3), rhenium disulfide (ReS.sub.2) and molybdenum diselenide (MoSe.sub.2).
5. The super-steep switching device of claim 1, wherein the second area has the length in a range of 200 to 300 nm.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
(13) Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the present disclosure, various changes may be made. The present disclosure may have various forms. Thus, specific embodiments may be illustrated in the drawings and may be described in detail herein. However, the embodiments are not intended to limit the present disclosure to a specific form. It should be understood that the present disclosure may include all changes, equivalents or substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. In illustrating the drawings, like reference numerals have been used for like elements.
(14) The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms a and an are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms comprises, comprising, includes, and including when used in this specification, specify the presence of the stated features, integers, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or greater other features, integers, operations, elements, components, and/or portions thereof.
(15) Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive concept belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
(16)
(17) Referring to
(18) A type of the substrate 110 is not particularly limited as long as the substrate may support the semiconductor channel 120, the source electrode 130, and the drain electrode 140 thereon. For example, the substrate 110 may include one selected from a metal having an insulating film formed on a surface thereof, a semiconductor substrate, a ceramic substrate, a polymer substrate, and the like.
(19) The semiconductor channel 120 may be disposed on the substrate 110. The semiconductor channel 120 may be made of a semiconductor material having impact ionization characteristic. The semiconductor channel 120 may be made of a p-type semiconductor material or an n-type semiconductor material. For example, the semiconductor channel 120 is made of a two-dimensional p-type semiconductor material such as black phosphorus (BP), tungsten diselenide (WSe.sub.2), boron arsenide (BAs), or etc. or may be made of a two-dimensional n-type semiconductor material such as indium selenide (InSe), molybdenum disulfide (MoS.sub.2), indium selenide (In.sub.2Se.sub.3), zirconium diselenide (ZrSe.sub.2), hafnium diselenide (HfSe.sub.2), etc.
(20) In one embodiment, the semiconductor channel 120 may be made of a material having a relatively low bandgap. This is because, as the band gap of the semiconductor channel 120 is smaller, an intensity of a critical electric field intensity that causes avalanche carrier multiplication, which will be described below, may be reduced. For example, the semiconductor channel 120 may be made of a semiconductor material having a bandgap of about 0.3 to 1.9 eV.
(21) The source electrode 130 and the drain electrode 140 may be in contact with the semiconductor channel 120 while being disposed on the substrate 110 and being spaced apart from each other. An area of the semiconductor channels 120 between the source electrode 130 and the drain electrode 140 may constitute a channel through which current may flow. Each of the source and drain electrodes 130 and 140 may be made of an electrically conductive material.
(22) The gate electrode 150 may be disposed on the semiconductor channel 120 so as to overlap only a portion of the semiconductor channel 120, and may receive a voltage so as to generate an electric field in the semiconductor channel 120. In one embodiment, the gate electrode 150 may be disposed so as to overlap only a portion of the semiconductor channel 120 adjacent to the source electrode 130. Further, an insulating layer 151 may be formed between the gate electrode 150 and the semiconductor channel 120.
(23) In one embodiment, a top surface of the semiconductor channel 120 may include a first area A overlapping the gate electrode 150, and a second area B non-overlapping the gate electrode 150. A ratio of a length of the first area A and a length of the second area B may be adjusted to control characteristic of the super-steep switching device.
(24) In one embodiment, in a device structure in which the first area A and the second area B are formed, a voltage for generating an electric field having an intensity greater than a minimum electric field intensity (hereinafter, referred to as a critical electric field intensity) at which the avalanche multiplication occurs in the first area A may be applied to the drain electrode 140.
(25) Further, a voltage may be applied to the gate electrode 150 simultaneously with the voltage application to the drain electrode 140. As the gate voltage gradually increases, the avalanche carrier multiplication phenomenon may occur in the first area A. That is, while the electric field having the intensity above the critical electric field intensity is applied to the first area A under the voltage application to the drain electrode 140, the gate voltage is gradually increased to generate the avalanche carrier multiplication, thereby implementing super-steep switching phenomenon at room temperature.
(26) When the electric field is applied to the first area A, the charge carriers are accelerated in the first area A. In general, the velocity of the charge carriers does not increase indefinitely. Rather, due to impact thereof with the lattice, the velocity of the charge carriers is saturated at a constant level. However, when a sufficiently strong electric field, that is, an electric field having the intensity larger than the critical electric field intensity is applied, the charge carriers sufficiently accelerated under the electric field collide with the lattice to cause an electron in the valence band to transfer to the conduction band, such that a new electron-hole pair is created. The new electron-hole pair again acquires high energy to continuously generate additional electron-hole pairs, and thus the carrier density may be greatly increased. In the present disclosure, the avalanche multiplication means that carriers are multiplicated under the impact ionization as described above, and the critical electric field intensity indicates the minimum electric field intensity at which the avalanche multiplication occurs.
(27) In one embodiment, regarding dark current change characteristic based on the electric field to the first area A, when the electric field having an intensity below the critical electric field intensity is applied to the first area A, a magnitude of the dark current generated in the first area A increases linearly based son the intensity of the applied electric field. To the contrary, when an electric field having an intensity larger than the critical electric field intensity is applied thereto, the magnitude of the dark current generated in the first area A increases in a superlinear manner due to the avalanche multiplication. Accordingly, the critical electric field intensity may refer to an electric field intensity at a point where behavior of the dark current changes from a linear manner to the superlinear manner in the dark current change characteristic based son the electric field for the first area A.
(28) In this regard, when the intensity of the electric field applied to the first area A greater than the critical electric field intensity continuously increases, breakdown of the first area A occurs. Accordingly, the drain electrode 140 may apply, to the semiconductor channel 120, an electric field having an intensity that is greater than the critical electric field intensity and is lower than the intensity of the electric field at which breakdown of the semiconductor channel 120 occurs.
(29) In one example, as described above, according to the present disclosure, the ratio of the length of the first area A and the length of the second area B may be controlled to implement the super-steep switching device that exhibits a low SS (Subthreshold Swing) value even at room temperature. In this regard, the SS (Subthreshold Swing) means a V.sub.GS value required to increase a drain-source current I.sub.DS by 10 times in a field effect transistor.
(30) In one embodiment, the second area B may have a length greater than 5 nm so that a tunneling phenomenon does not occur therein, and may have the length smaller than 400 nm so that steep switching may be possible. The second area B may have a length smaller than 400 nm so that a steep-switching phenomenon does not occur therein. For an optimized operation of the super-steep switching device according to this embodiment, the ratio of the length of the first area A and the length of the second area B may be in a range of 1:0.1 to 0.4.
(31) When the ratio of the length of the second area to the length of the first area A is smaller than 0.1, an off current increases such that an on/off ratio decreases as, and thus the SS value increases, and thus, probability of occurrence of impact ionization decreases. On the contrary, when the ratio of the length of the second area B to the length of the first area A exceeds 0.4, the steep-switching does not occur.
(32) However, in the super-steep switching device of this embodiment, a length of a gate area of the semiconductor channel 120 having impact ionization characteristic may be adjusted as described above, thereby increasing the probability of occurrence of the avalanche carrier multiplication phenomenon occurring in the first area A, and thus, significantly increasing the number of charge carriers generated in the semiconductor channel 120. As a result, the super-steep switching device having a very low (5 mV/dec or lower) SS (Subthreshold Swing) value even at room temperature and having an optimized On/Off ratio may be implemented.
(33)
(34) Referring to
(35) The super-steep switching device 100 includes the configuration as described above. Thus, the description thereof will be omitted.
(36) The pull-up transistor 200 may be connected in series with the super-steep switching device 100 and may operate in a complementary manner to the super-steep switching device 100.
(37) In one embodiment, a gate electrode 210 of the pull-up transistor 200 and the gate electrode 150 of the super-steep switching device 100 are electrically connected to each other. Thus, the same gate voltage may be applied thereto.
(38) In one embodiment, a semiconductor layer 220 of the pull-up transistor 200 may be made of an n-type semiconductor material capable of performing a complementary operation with the super-steep switching device. For example, the semiconductor layer 220 of the pull-up transistor 200 may be made of an n-type semiconductor material such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS.sub.2), indium selenide (In.sub.2Se.sub.3), rhenium disulfide (ReS.sub.2), or molybdenum diselenide (MoSe.sub.2).
(39) In one embodiment, the semiconductor layer 220 of the pull-up transistor 200 may be made of a p-type semiconductor material capable of performing a complementary operation with the super-steep switching device. For example, the semiconductor layer 220 of the pull-up transistor 200 may be made of a p-type semiconductor material such as black phosphorus (BP), tungsten diselenide (WSe.sub.2), boron arsenide (BAs), or tellurium.
(40) The inverter device 20 according to the present disclosure may exhibit a high inverter gain and ideal noise margin characteristic based on the super-steep switching phenomenon, due to a simple series connection circuit configuration between the super-steep switching device 100 and the pull-up transistor 200 that may operate in a complementary manner to the super-steep switching device 100.
(41) Hereinafter, Examples of the present disclosure will be described in detail. However, the following Examples are only some examples of the present disclosure, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the following Examples.
Example 1: Characteristics of Super-Steep Switching Device
(42) (a) in
(43) Referring to (a) in
(44) Further, (b) and (c) in
Example 2: Changes in Characteristic Based on Gate Area Length Adjustment of Super-Steep Switching Device
(45) (a) in
(46) As shown (a) in in
(47) However, since device characteristic must be based on the critical voltage as well as the On/Off ratio, and the SS value, the probability of occurrence of impact ionization, the On/Off current ratio, and the SS value, based on the ratio of the length of the first area (Gated region) and the length of the second area (Ungated I.sup.2 region) which does not overlap the gate electrode were measured and were shown in (b) to (d) in
(48) First, referring to (b) to (d) in
(49) However, it is identified that when the ratio of the length of the second area (L.sub.ungated) to the length of the first area (L.sub.gated) is smaller than 0.1 (that is, the length of the second area (L.sub.ungated) is smaller than 100 nm), the Off current suddenly increases such that the On/Off ratio decreases. Thus, the SS value increases.
(50) Further, as shown in (b) in
(51) From these results, it may be identified that when the ratio of the length of the first area and the length of the second area is in a range of 1:0.1 to 0.4 in accordance with the present disclosure, the On/Off ratio of the device and the SS value of the device may be optimized.
(52)
(53) As shown in
(54)
(55) As shown in
(56)
(57) As shown in
(58)
(59) As shown in
Example 3: Implementation and Analysis of Impact Ionization Characteristic of Two-Dimensional Semiconductor
(60) (a) and (b) in
(61) Referring to (a) and (b) of
(62) The impact ionization characteristic was analyzed based on a following equation:
(63)
(64) Referring to (c) of
Example 4: Inverter Device Having High Inverter Gain and Ideal Noise Margin
(65) (a) in
Example 5: Identification of Materials Usable as a Semiconductor Channel
(66)
(67)
(68)
(69)
(70)
(71)
(72) From
(73) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Channel Channel Ungated- SS On/off ratio Material length width region length (mV/dec) (10.sup.) MoS.sub.2 2.5 m 5 m 390 nm 30.44 1 InSe 5 m 3.5 m 370 nm 11.47 1 5 m 2.5 m 100 nm 13.32 1 BP 5.5 m 1 m 170 nm 34.57 2.5 ZrSe.sub.2 1 m 0.5 m 180 um 18.16 6 1 m 0.5 m 180 um 27.71 5 WSe.sub.2 3 m 2.5 m 300 nm 2.73 6
(74) As shown in
(75) However, in the case of MoS.sub.2 and InSe, there is a problem in that the on/off ratio is low, and in the case of BP and ZrSe.sub.2, there is a problem in that on-current is low. However, in the case of WSe.sub.2, it can be seen that both of the above-described problems may be solved and a low operating voltage may be achieved.
(76) Although the above description has been made with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art may variously modify and change the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as described in the claims below.