Electron Mobility and Short-Channel Device Characteristics of SOI FinFETs With Uniaxially Strained (110) Channels

We have successfully fabricated uniaxially strained SOI (SSOI) FinFETs with high electron mobility and low parasitic resistance. The high electron mobility enhancement on the (110) fin sidewall surfaces was obtained by utilizing effective subband engineering through uniaxial tensile strain along lang110rang, while the substantial reduction of the parasitic resistance was achieved by selective Si epitaxy on the source and drain regions. It was experimentally found that the electron mobility on the (110) sidewall surfaces was significantly enhanced (2.6times) and even surpassed the (100) universal mobility (1.2times). This high mobility enhancement is mainly attributed to the electron repopulation from fourfold valleys having a heavier mass along lang110rang to twofold valleys having a lighter one. In addition, the effective mass reduction of the twofold valleys due to conduction band warping and/or the suppressed surface roughness scattering can also be responsible for the mobility enhancement. Thanks to these high electron mobility enhancement and low parasitic resistance large performance enhancement of 35% was realized in uniaxially SSOI FinFETs with a gate length of 50 nm. This enhancement was evaluated to be as high as ~80% (= 35%/45%) of the intrinsic strain-induced enhancement of the short-channel device performance (45%) at the same strain level (0.8%, ~1.5 GPa) and gate length.