Performance benefits of diamond-like carbon liner stressor in strained p-channel field-effect transistors with silicon-germanium source and drain

Abstract

We report the first investigation of the impact of diamond-like carbon (DLC) high-stress liner on strained p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (p-FETs) having silicon-germanium (SiGe) source-and-drain (S/D) stressor. The DLC exhibited a very high compressive stress of ∼5 GPa. At a fixed Ioff of 1 × 10-7 A/μ, the DLC liner stressor contributed to a further 11% Ion enhancement for p-FETs with Si0.75 Ge0.25 S/D. This is the first demonstration that further boost in device performance in a p-FET that is already strained using Si0.75Ge0.25 S/D can be achieved with DLC liner stressor. Due to the extremely high intrinsic compressive stress of the DLC, a very small DLC thickness of ∼27 nm is sufficient for achieving significant strain effect and performance enhancement. © 2009 IEEE.