Reconfiguration of operation modes in silicon nanowire field-effect transistors by electrostatic virtual doping

Abstract

In this study, we perform reconfigurable n- and p-channel operations of a tri-top-gate field-effect transistor (FET) made of a p⁺-i-n⁺silicon nanowire (SiNW). In the reconfigurable FET (RFET), two polarity gates and one control gate induce virtual electrostatic doping in the SiNW channel. The polarity gates are electrically connected to each other and program the channel type, while the control gate modulates the flow of charge carriers in the SiNW channel. The SiNW RFET features simple device design, symmetrical electrical characteristics in the n- and p-channel operation modes using p⁺-i-n⁺diode characteristics, and both operation modes exhibit high ON/OFF ratios (∼10⁶) and high ON currents (∼1μAμm^-1). The proposed device is demonstrated experimentally using a fully CMOS-compatible top-down processes.

Keywords: electrostatic doping; polarity control; reconfigurable field-effect transistors; silicon nanowires.