Erbium silicided Schottky Source/Drain Silicon Nanowire N-Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

Schottky source/drain (S/D) N-metal–oxide–semiconductor-field-effect transistor (MOSFET) have been fabricated using a simplified top down process with silicon nanowires (SiNW) as the channel body and ErSi_2-x as the metal silicide S/D. Despite the use of a thick buried oxide (BOX) layer as the gate dielectric, the devices show good electrical characteristics with high I_on/I_off ratio of ∼10⁵, high drive current of ∼900 µA/µm, which are significantly higher than those previously reported Schottky S/D MOSFETs without barrier-modified junctions. The effect of physical characteristics such as metal-silicided junction depth, number of SiNW channels, and metal–semiconductor junction size were investigated and found to have a direct effect on the electrical performance of the devices. Current transport as a function of Schottky barrier height (Φ_beff) modulation was also studied.