Output details

Nanoscale Characterization of Gate Leakage in Strained High-Mobility Devices

Cross-hatched surfaces and surface irregularities are present in many strained-layer semiconductor systems in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics. They degrade device properties, e.g. MOSFET gate leakage and reliability. This has been hard to understand as cross-hatching occurs at larger length scales than MOSFET dimensions. In this work, conductive atomic force microscopy is used to correlate nanoscale and device-scale data, for the first time elucidating why cross-hatching impacts performance. Our conclusion provides understanding for numerous material systems including GaAs, GaN, graphene, SiC and SiGe. The publication led to an invited talk (ECS2012) and paper (EMRS2012) in conjunction with FZJuelich (Germany) and CEA-LETI (France).