Yann-Wen
Lan
*a,
Po-Chun
Chen
a,
Yun-Yan
Lin
a,
Ming-Yang
Li
b,
Lain-Jong
Li
c,
Yu-Ling
Tu
b,
Fu-Liang
Yang
b,
Min-Cheng
Chen
d and
Kai-Shin
Li
*d
aDepartment of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 11677, Taiwan. E-mail: ywlanblue@gmail.com
bResearch Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
cPhysical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
dNational Nano Device Laboratories, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu 30078, Taiwan. E-mail: ksli@narlabs.org.tw
First published on 7th January 2019
Integration of high performance n-type and p-type field-effect transistors with complementary device operation in the same kind of layered materials is highly desirable for pursuing low power and flexible next-generation electronics. In this work, we have shown a well-mannered growth of MoS2 on a fin-shaped oxide structure and integration of both n-type and p-type MoS2 by using a traditional implantation technique. With the advance of the fin-shaped structure, the maxima and the effective ON current density for the MoS2 fin-shaped field-effect transistors are respectively obtained to be about 50 μA μm−1 (normalized by the circumference of the fin) and around 500 μA μm−1 (only normalized by the fin size), while its ON/OFF ratio is more than 106 with low OFF current of a few pA. Based on our n-type and p-type MoS2 fin-shaped field-effect transistors, the complementary MoS2 inverter with a high DC voltage gain of more than 20 is acquired. Our results provide evidence for complementary 2D material operation in the same materials, a promising avenue for the development of high performance and high-density complementary 2D electronic devices.
Conceptual insightsIn this study, a new concept has been demonstrated, which is the integration of both fin-shaped n-type and p-type MoS2 field effect transistors by using a traditional implantation technique to show high performance two-dimensional material electronics. Compared to the existing research, this concept is compatible with the Si-based fabrication process and is industrially feasible for the future fabrication of advanced devices. The additional insight to the nanoscience field in this work is to provide a good idea (fin-shaped MoS2 FETs) for enhancing the effective current density to act as a promising protocol of new future CMOS applications. |
Since buffer layering is not a standard process and it may degrade the performance of devices during procedures, it is highly desirable to figure out the whole silicon compatibility in the fabrication process. There is a previous simulation study showing that MoS2 contacting with high work function silicon may bring about hole-dominated carrier injection in MoS2 FETs.22 Based on the implication of this study, we have meticulously fabricated devices and successfully demonstrated both n-type and p-type FETs made of MoS2 film in an identical chip by directly growing MoS2 on different types of source/drain silicon electrodes. Furthermore, in order to take advantage of its high current density, the MoS2 film is intentionally grown on the fin oxide structure. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of MoS2 can fully cover the fin oxide structure which is compatible with the Si-based fabrication process and is industrially feasible for the future fabrication of advanced devices. We have also shown that the complementary MoS2 (CMOS2) inverter has a dc voltage gain of more than 20. This CMOS2 is based on n-type and p-type MoS2 and is promising for acting as the protocol of new future CMOS applications.
The device fabrication in this work is extended from our previously reported study on the advanced 10 nm channel-length MoS2 devices.23 The main difference from our previous study, in terms of device geometry, is the fin-shaped structure for the channel. The whole process flow is completely described in Fig. S1 (ESI†). The typical MoS2 thin film islands and their Raman spectrum (A1g − E2g = 19 cm−1) are shown in Fig. S2 (ESI†), which indicates the presence of the crystal MoS2 film near the S/D electrodes. A schematic plot of the CVD system and the thermal cycle used for layered MoS2 deposition are shown in Fig. S3 (ESI†).24
Fig. 1(a) shows a schematic plot of a MoS2 fin-shaped field effect transistor (a MoS2 fin-FET), which displays an original idea that the SiO2 fin structure is fully covered with a continuous layered MoS2 film as a fin-shaped conduction channel. The top-view SEM image of one of the MoS2 fin-FETs is shown in Fig. 1(b), where the gate electrode crosses over between the source (S) and drain (D) with the surface contact area of about 300 nm2 and the distance between S and D is 100 nm. The cross-section TEM image shown in Fig. 1(c) clearly displays the fully oxidized SiO2 fin structure with layered MoS2 coverage with a high-k metal gate stack. Note that there is a thin SiO2 layer (∼3 nm) that we intentionally grow on top of the continuous 3 nm (5 layers) MoS2 film as the buffer layer for high quality HfO2 deposition, as shown in Fig. 1(d). Without this buffer layer, it is easy to damage the MoS2 film when an ALD process is conducted. In addition, the uniformity of the film still needs to be improved for future applications, so we suggest that the CVD setup with a vertical vapor flow could potentially be used for the synthesis of highly uniform MoS2 instead of the horizontal vapor flow we use now.
During the fabrication process of the MoS2 fin-FET, we purposefully combine a traditional implantation technique into our process to make both n-type and p-type MoS2 conduction channels possible in the same 2D layered material. The mechanism enabling the acquisition of both the n- and p-type MoS2 conduction channel is proposed below. According to our previous experience of the Si-TMD contact, highly doped Si directly contacting with TMD materials is possible to adjust the channel chemical potential with respect to the original level. Owing to the dramatic formation of band bending in MoS2, the MoS2 Fermi level is effectively close to the conduction band by the n+ Si contact or the valence band by the p+ Si contact. The band diagrams for n-type and p-type contacts on the OFF state are separately shown in Fig. 2(a) and (c), which indicate that the electron and hole in two cases are blocked due to the energy barrier ϕn and ϕp respectively. On the contrary, the electron and the hole in both cases can transport as conducting carriers in the ON state while gate voltages are applied in the positive direction for the n-type contact and in the negative direction for the p-type contact as shown in Fig. 2(b) and (d), in which the gate voltage must at least overcome the energy barrier (i.e. Vth). In our experiments, since we selectively implant Si contacts as n+ Si and p+ Si for the seed to grow the MoS2 film on a wafer/chip, both n-type and p-type MoS2 conducting channels are expected to be simultaneously obtained in a run of the fabrication process.
Electrical characterization is performed to confirm the feasibility of the proposed model. The typical measured output characteristic (Id–Vd) curves and transfer characteristic (Id–Vg) curves for n-type and p-type MoS2 channels are shown in Fig. 3. The measured current is increased as the negative gate voltages increase in the case of the p-type Si contact while the current is increased as the positive gate voltages increase in the case of the n-type Si contact. The corresponding output characteristics of n-type and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs are shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. The slightly nonlinear Id–Vd curves indicate that the hetero interface between MoS2 and doped Si still has contact issues due to the presence of the van der Waals gap or other contaminations respectively increasing specific contact resistance (Rc) and resistance under contact (Rsh) while using the transfer length model (TLM).25,26 Even though the quantum limit of the metal/2D material contact hasn’t been achieved, methods such as further thermal annealing or surface modification of MoS2 have been proposed in order to achieve better contact.27,28Fig. 3(c) and (d) show the transfer characteristics of p-type and n-type MoS2 fin-FETs with a device current ON/OFF ratio of approximately 106 at Vd = 1 V. The result of electrical characterizations evidenced that MoS2 shows p-type behavior as grown from the p+ Si contact while MoS2 is an n-type channel as synthesized from the n+ Si electrodes.
Fig. 4(a) and (b) show the distributions of 20 typical devices’ ON-current (Ion) and threshold voltages (Vth) for n-type and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs in an identical chip. Ion and OFF-current (Ioff) are normalized by the whole channel width (fin circumference) instead of the fin size only. Most of the devices possess a symmetric Vth well while Ion reaches to around 50 μA μm−1 for both n-type and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs with Vd = 1 V. The Ioff for both cases is very low, which is close to 10−5 μA μm−1. The corresponding measured transfer characteristic (Id–Vg) curves for p-type and n-type MoS2 fin-FETs are provided in Fig. S4 and S5 in the ESI.† Note that there are variations in threshold voltage which we think are caused by charges originating from dielectric materials when we deposit HfO2 or Al2O3 on top of MoS2 for the top-gate structure. A comparison of p-type MoS2 performance using our strategy and other methods in the literature is summarized in Table 1.21,23,29,30 The field effect mobility (μ) is extracted from Id–Vg through calculating the approximation equation
(1) |
Fig. 4 Typical (a) on current (Ion) and off current (Ioff) and (b) threshold voltage (Vth) distribution for 10 n-type and 10 p-type MoS2 fin-shaped field effect transistors in identical chips. |
p-Type silicon [ref. 23] | AlCl3 [ref. 30] | MoOx buffer [ref. 21] | Nb doping [ref. 29] | This work | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ON-current density (μA μm−1) | 150 | 21 | 0.13 | 1 | 50 |
∼500 (effective) | |||||
ON–OFF ratio | 106 | 107 | 104 | 104 | 106 |
Mobility (cm2 V−1 s−1) | — | 132 | — | 6.7 | 10 |
Sample preparation | CVD | Exfoliation | Exfoliation | Exfoliation | CVD |
Channel structure | Planar | Planar | Planar | Planar | Fin-shaped |
Since a dual gate structure (top and bottom gates) is designed in our MoS2 fin-FETs for better control, the back gate is used to adjust the threshold voltages in both n- and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs. Note that MoS2 on the gate oxide in the fin and planar structure is about 100 nm and 30 nm respectively (see Fig. 1(a) and (c)). The back gate can simultaneously tune both regions in MoS2 to produce a unitary phenomenon. By controlling the back gate bias, we can correct device variations or dynamically configure a device as a high-performance or low energy consumption device in order to achieve higher speed and/or lower power applications. Fig. 5(a) and (b) show the results that back gate voltage can effectively shift the threshold voltages and the comparison of the Vth shift by the back gate for n- and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs is displayed in Fig. 5(c). We can clearly observe from Fig. 5(c) that the threshold voltage is adjustable for the tuning of the 0.5 V shift per back-gate bias applied (0.5 V/1 V) based on the back-gate control. However, the separated back gate for n- and p-type MoS2 fin-FETs is needed to selectively control individual devices in order to achieve adjustable device performance in the future.
A complementary MoS2 inverter for basic integrated circuit complementary device applications was demonstrated by integrating one n-MoS2 fin-FET and one p-MoS2 fin-FET connected in series without back-gate voltage. The device schematic is shown in Fig. 6(a). The transfer characteristic curves of the CMOS2 inverter as a function of VDD are shown in Fig. 6(b), which exhibits a clear inversion signal with high Vout and low Vin. From the result, it is indicated that the noise margin to get reliable data is VDD larger than 0.1 V. The peak dc voltage gain, |∂Vout/∂Vin|, of the CMOS2 fin-FET inverter is measured to be 20 times larger at a supply voltage VDD of 3 V with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.15 V, as shown in Fig. 6(c). Compared to hetero material (MoS2/WSe2) based complementary inverters that could achieve a DC gain higher than 100,31 the performance of our inverters still has room for improvement. In the case of complementary inverters constructed by the same doped 2D materials (WSe2/WSe2, MoTe2/MoTe2), our work shows comparable results of the DC gain.32,33 Mostly, the CMOS2 inverter we demonstrated is superior to inverters based on MoS2 reported.34,35Table 2 shows a comparison of the device performance and the material structure between this work and devices made from others.31,36–39
[Ref. 31] | [Ref. 36] | [Ref. 37] | [Ref. 38] | [Ref. 39] | This work | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DC gain | 110@2 V | 25@5 V | 38@2 V | 13.7@2 V | 60@5 V | 22@3 V |
80@2.8 V | 33@3 V | |||||
Sample preparation | CVD | CVD | Exfoliation | Exfoliation | CVD | CVD |
Channel materials and structure | Planar MoS2 + WSe2 | Planar WSe2 | Planar WSe2 | Planar MoS2 + WSe2 | Planar MoS2 | Fin-shaped MoS2 |
We have demonstrated the chip-scale growth of continuous layered MoS2 fully covered on an SiO2 fin-shaped structure and integration of n-type and p-type MoS2 by using the traditional implantation technique to exhibit complementary MoS2 fin-shaped field effect transistors. The highly doped n+ and p+ Si as the nucleation seeds to grow MoS2 can induce Fermi level tuning and successfully make MoS2 with n- and p-type operations possible. These MoS2 fin-shaped field effect transistors typically show a few tens μA μm−1 in average ON current and around 106 in current ON/OFF ratio. Accordingly, the complementary MoS2 inverter is displayed with more than 20 high voltage gain. A better understanding to grow MoS2 on higher fin oxide structures or uneven topography is an interesting task to figure out the growth mechanism behind this. The results are fascinating and promising for the future development of full wafer availability in stacked 3D integrated circuit applications based on 2D materials.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c8nh00419f |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019 |