Performance and potential of germanium on insulator field-effect transistors

Abstract

The performance of field-effect transistors may be improved by increasing the channel mobility. Strained Si can accomplish this but Ge is another option. Here we show data for germanium-on-insulator (GOI) devices and also describe the simple bonding process which was used in the device fabrication. The GOI devices show better mobilities than their Si counterparts. We also show data for some metal-gate/high-kappa dielectric devices on a GOI layer fabricated on a processed Si wafer. Here the GOI structure and processing does not alter the underlying Si devices and yet gives devices whose mobilities exceed those of Si devices. Simulations support the view that the improved performance results from the mobility enhancement and that the performance should also hold for submicron devices. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.