Control of Self-Heating in Thin Virtual Substrate Strained Si MOSFETs

This paper presents the first results and analysis of strained Si n-channel MOSFETs fabricated on thin SiGe virtual substrates. Significant improvements in electrical performance are demonstrated compared with Si control devices. The impact of SiGe device self-heating is compared for strained Si MOSFETs fabricated on thin and thick virtual substrates. This paper demonstrates that by using high-quality thin virtual substrates, the compromised performance enhancements commonly observed in short-gate-length MOSFETs and high-bias conditions due to self-heating in conventional thick virtual substrate devices are eradicated. The devices were fabricated with a 2.8-nm gate oxide and included NiSi to reduce the parasitic series resistance. The strained layers grown on the novel substrates comprising 20% Ge did not relax during fabrication. Good on-state performance, off-state performance, and cross-wafer uniformity are demonstrated. The results show that thin virtual substrates have the potential to circumvent the major issues associated with conventional virtual substrate technology. A promising solution for realizing high-performance strained Si devices suitable for a wide range of applications is thus presented