Towards Schottky-barrier source/drain MOSFETs

This paper provides an overview of metal source/drain (S/D) Schottky-barrier (SB) MOSFET technology. The technology offers several benefits for scaling CMOS, i.e., extremely low source/drain resistance, sharp junctions from S/D to channel and low temperature processing. A successful implementation of the technology needs to overcome new obstacles such as SB height engineering and precise control of silicide growth. Device design factors such as S/D to gate underlap, Si film thickness and oxide thickness affect device performance owing to their effects on the SB width. In the past two years several groups have demonstrated high-performance SB MOSFETs, which places the technology as a promising candidate for future generations of CMOS technology.