Towards Sub-10 nm Diameter III-V Vertical Nanowire Transistors

Towards the demonstration of sub-10 nm III-V vertical fin and nanowire MOSFETs, a novel alcohol-based digital-etch technology has been developed. The new technique minimizes the mechanical forces exerted on vertical nanowire structures. A consistent 1 nm/cycle etching rate on both InGaAs and InGaSb-based heterostructures has been obtained. This is the first demonstration of digital etch on antimonide-based semiconductors. This technique features a high 97% mechanical yield in the sub-10 nm feature size regime. A record 5 nm diameter InGaAs nanowire with height of 230 nm has been demonstrated. Finally, we fabricated InGaAs vertical single nanowire MOSFETs using this technique. These transistors exhibit a linear subthreshold swing of 70 mV/dec, one of the best values reported in such devices. The results shows promise to demonstrate III-V vertical nanowire transistors with sub-10 nm