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Low Resistance Ohmic Contacts Formed from Metal Nanocrystals

Detailed Technology Description

Novel low resistance ohmic contacts made from metal nanocrystals have been developed.

Others

• V. Narayanan, Z. Liu, Y.M.N. Shen, M. Kim and E.C. Kan (2000) Reduction of metal-semiconductor contact resistance by embedded nanocrystals IEDM Tech. Dig. 87-90.
• Patents: 6,646,302; 6,743,709; 7,259,984

*Abstract

Researchers at Cornell University have developed novel low resistance ohmic contacts made from metal nanocrystals. Nanocrystals are embedded in metal contact layers positioned at a metal/semiconductor or metal/insulator interface of a semiconductor device. Work function differentials at the nanocrystal and metal layer interface produce fringing fields which reduce resistance at electron tunneling barriers and significantly enhance tunneling currents through the interface junctions. These fields are very similar to fringing fields between two capacitor plates and can be significantly higher than metal-silicon Schottky fields.

 

Reduction of tunneling barriers in ohmic contacts typically requires shallow surface doping, which is hard to achieve in devices such as those based on SiC, or organic semiconductors. The use of this invention removes the need for such difficult doping techniques and enables more efficient manufacture of very large scale integration (VLSI) devices.

 

Potential Applications

• Manufacturing for low voltage flash memory (e.g. consumer electronics, integrated circuits)
  
• Large band gap semiconductors
• Low temperature TFTs
• MEMS switches

 

Advantages

• Easily implemented on standard chip processing equipment
• Lower manufacturing cost due to thinner insulating layers

• Lower application voltage requirements for a range of tunneling current densities; reduces write/erase voltages 3 to 5 times for flash memory

• Lower application power consumption

*Licensing

Martin Teschlmt439@cornell.edu(607) 254-4454

Country/Region

USA