Strained silicon nanowire transistors with germanium source and drain stressors

Abstract

We report the first demonstration of pure germanium (Ge) source/drain (S/ D) stressors on the ultranarrow or ultrathin Si S/D regions of nanowire FETs with gate lengths down to 5 nm. Ge S/D compressively strains the channel to provide up to ∼100% IDsat enhancement. We also introduce a novel Melt-Enhanced Dopant diffusion and activation technique to form fully embedded Si0.15Ge0.85 S/D stressors in nanowire FETs, further boosting the channel strain and achieving ∼125% IDsat enhancement. © 2008 IEEE.