Self-Aligned Top-Gate Structure in High-Performance 2D p-FETs via van der Waals Integration and Contact Spacer Doping

Nano Lett. 2023 Dec 13;23(23):11345-11352. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04009. Epub 2023 Nov 20.

Abstract

The potential of 2D materials in future CMOS technology is hindered by the lack of high-performance p-type field effect transistors (p-FETs). While utilization of the top-gate (TG) structure with a p-doped spacer area offers a solution to this challenge, the design and device processing to form gate stacks pose serious challenges in realization of ideal p-FETs and PMOS inverters. This study presents a novel approach to address these challenges by fabricating lateral p+-p-p+ junction WSe2 FETs with self-aligned TG stacks in which desired junction is formed by van der Waals (vdW) integration and selective oxygen plasma-doping into spacer regions. The exceptional electrostatic controllability with a high on/off current ratio and small subthreshold swing (SS) of plasma doped p-FETs is achieved with the self-aligned metal/hBN gate stacks. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we construct a PMOS inverter using this device architecture, which exhibits a remarkably low power consumption of approximately 4.5 nW.

Keywords: 2D semiconductors; dual-gate; oxygen plasma; patterning doping profiles; transferred vdW top-gate; tungsten oxide.