A 20 nm gate-length ultra-thin body p-MOSFET with silicide source/drain

As the scaling of CMOS transistors extends to the sub-20 nm regime, the most challenging aspect of device design is the control of the off-state current. The traditional methods for controlling leakage current via the substrate doping profile will be difficult to implement at these dimensions. A promising method for controlling leakage in sub-20 nm transistors is the reduction in source-to-drain leakage paths through the use of a body region which is significantly thinner then the gate length, with either a single or a double gate. In this paper we present ultra-thin body PMOS transistors with gate lengths down to 20 nm fabricated using a low-barrier silicide as the source and drain. Calixarene-based electron-beam lithography was used to define critical device dimensions. These transistors show 260 μA μm−1 on-current and on/off current ratios of 106, for a conservative oxide thickness of 40 Å and |Vg − Vt| = 1.2 V. Excellent short-channel effect, with only 0.2 V reduction in |Vt| is obtained in devices with gate lengths ranging from 100 to 20 nm. c © 2000 Academic Press