Improved RFET Performance Using Dual-Aluminum-Contact (DAC)
Authors: Carvalho Henrique Lanfredi , Rangel Ricardo Cardoso , Sasaki Katia , Yojo Leonardo , Agopian Paula , Martino Joao 
Published: September 2023

The reconfigurable field effect transistors (RFET) enable the integration of MOS-type transistors (N-type and P-type) in a single device. The programming gate voltage (VPG) controls the transistor type [1]. A greater area efficiency in logic circuits can be obtained, due to the possible different logic operation, such as NAND to NOR in a single circuit [2 - 3]. Others application include the use of RFET in circuits for security reason in order to avoid the reverse engineering [4]. Figure 1 (A) and (B) show a special type of RFET called BESOI MOSFET that will be one of the devices used in this work.

Many conventional RFETs contain NiSi source/drain (S/D) contacts, or other contacts with mid-gap S/D material, providing a symmetrical current between holes and electrons. However such contacts decrease injection of current [5 - 7]. Devices based on dual-doping (DD), provided a significant improvement in the current level, in addition to the ease fabrication due to the absence of the silicidation process, such technology cannot act in doping-free CMOS processes [6] [8]. Figure 2 shows the drain current as a function of the control gate voltage (IDS -VCG) for the BESOI MOSFET.

This work presents a new proposal for a dual-contact S/D (DC) RFET, without the presence of DD regions and doping process, enabling dopants-free CMOS processes, using only S/D aluminum contacts, performed through Sentaurus TCAD simulations [9].

Recently in the Integrable Systems Laboratory of the University of São Paulo (LSI-USP), two RFET with aluminum S/D contacts were reported. Both presented a high current for only one type of carrier (holes or electrons) [10 - 13]. The BESOI MOSFET conducts current through its back interface, where the channel between S/D contacts is formed by the bias of the programming gate (VPG), thus its operating mode is divided into P-type (VPG < 0 ) and N-type (VPG > 0). The transistor drain current is controlled by control gate voltage (VCG) [5] [10 - 11].

The Figure 3 shows the drain current balanced as a function of the control gate voltage (ID -VCG), for aluminum BESOI MOSFET’s with and without annealing process (W/A, Wo/A) after the metal deposition [10 - 11]. Using both BE SOI MOSFET with S/D aluminum contact, without process doping, a new RFET Dual Aluminum Contact (DAC) is shown Figure 4.

The challenge the design is to flow of current (holes) through the outer contact (W/A contact), due to the influence of the inner schottky low-barrier aluminum contact (Wo/A contact) near to the back interface. Figure 5 shows the carrier density as a function of the depth of the silicon under the inner contact, for different silicon thicknesses (tSi) and fixed programming gate voltage (VPG). The high concentration of electrons near to the inner contact, provided an ohmic contact for electrons [11], however near the back interface, an increasing concentration of holes, due to VPG. Increasing the tSi reduces the influence of charges near the back interface, for tSi=30nm the current flow between the outer contact is possible. However, increasing the tSi decreases the efficiency of the control gate, added to the high electric field in back interface increases IOFF (similar effect described for FD SOI [14]). The Figure 6 shows the drain current as a function of the control gate voltage of BESOI nMOSFET with tSi = 30nm. Such effect can be mitigated, optimizing the coupling the gates. Figure 7 shows the final proposal of the BESOI MOSFET DAC.

Figure 8 shows the IDS-VCG for different thicknesses in the S/D contacts (tsi cont). As shown in Figure 5, a greater thickness in the contacts makes possible a smaller influence of the inner contact near the back interface, allowing greater concentrations of gaps, so consequently there is an increase in the p-mode current. However, increasing the thickness of the contacts promotes a reduction in the electron current, due to the increase in the series resistance in inner contact in n-mode.

Figure 9 presents the ID-VCG for different VPG bias for the DAC BESOI MOSFET (A) and NiSi BESOI MOSFET (B). Using the DAC BESOI MOSFET, an increase in current was obtained in relation to the NiSi contact (900% in n-type and 300% in p-type), without the addition of doping regions (dual-doping) and using a single contact metal (Aluminum).

Figure 1