Hybrid complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor inverters based on single nanowires

Abstract

High-performance hybrid complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) inverters based on single nanowires (NWs) are reported. The involved p- and n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs) are fabricated with p-Zn₃P₂ and n-CdS NWs, respectively. High-κ HfO₂ dielectric layers are used as the top-gate oxide layers. Both MOSFETs work in enhancement mode (E-mode) with near-zero threshold voltages. Under a low supply voltage (V_DD) of 1 V, the inverters have very high voltage gain (∼28) and ultralow power consumption (the switching and static power consumption are less than 1 nW and 10 pW, respectively.). The high and low output voltages are very close to full rail. The dynamic behaviors of the inverters are investigated. Moreover, the inverters can work stably under a large supply voltage range (from 100 mV to 10 V) with gain larger than unity. The operation of the inverters is analyzed in detail. All the results show that the as-fabricated CMOS inverters are promising for future high-performance low power dissipation logic circuit applications.