Fabrication and Characterization of Silicon Tunnel Diodes Doped by Short-Time Rapid Thermal Annealing

Band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) has attracted increasing attention as a mechanism for tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), promising higher switching speed than silicon (Si) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). To investigate the BTBT mechanism in Si nanodevices, we fabricated and characterized nanoscale tunnel (Esaki) diodes based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. Characteristics of Esaki diodes were observed in devices with large widths, but not in the target nanoscale devices. This can be related to the short-time rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process used in the fabrication of these diodes. This study presents the technological challenges and competing processes that can be tuned for fabrication of nanowire tunnel diodes in Si.