Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Transistors”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Heavy ion irradiation effects on GaN/AlGaN high electron mobility transistor failure at off-state

We investigate the effects of ion irradiation on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility electron transistors using in-situ transmission electron microscopy. The experiments are performed inside the microscope to visualize the defects, microstructure and interfaces of ion irradiated transistors during operation and failure. Here, experimental results indicate that heavy ions such as Au 4+ can create a significant number of defects such as vacancies, interstitials and dislocations in the device layer. It is hypothesized that these defects act as charge traps in the device layer and the resulting charge accumulation lowers the breakdown voltage. Sequential energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping allows us to track individual chemical elements during the experiment, and the results suggest that the electrical degradation in the device layer may originate from oxygen and nitrogen vacancies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

2-Aminoanthracene Crystallization in Its Compatible Polystyrene Block: RAFT Synthesis and Enhanced Charge Retention in Pentacene Transistor Gate Dielectrics

We synthesized polystyrene-block-polyanthrylaminomethylstyrene (PS-b-PAAS) via RAFT reaction and side chain modification where the PAAS block is 50%. By blending 2-aminoanthracene (2AA) with PS-b-PAAS, the co-aggregation behavior of the PAAS block and 2AA within the thin film was observed by optical microscopy (OM) and x-ray diffraction. At 5 and 10 wt% of 2AA within the thin film, OM results showed a clear morphological difference between PS matrix and PS-b-PAAS matrix. Differences in the 2AA excited state lifetime in these matrices were also established using transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS). Blends were used as gate dielectrics in pentacene transistors. We compared characteristic voltage (Vc, an indicator of threshold voltage) before and after charging of PS-b-PAAS blended with unsubstituted PS and both polymers individually blended with 2AA. For blended PS-b-PAAS and PS, as the concentration of PS-b-PAAS increases, the decreased Vc especially with negative charging of the pentacene indicated a larger concentration of charge carriers induced by the dielectric film. The charging experiments also revealed that the unique structure formed by the 2AA/PS-b-PAAS blend significantly affected the charge storage capability of the organic field-effect transistors (OFET). Furthermore, this work demonstrates the novel co-aggregation structure in the dielectrics, and furthermore its impact on charge storage capability in pentacene OFETs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Visualization of Mesoscopic Conductivity Fluctuations in Amorphous Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistors

Charge transport in amorphous semiconductors is considerably more complicated than the process in crystalline materials due to abundant localized states. In addition to device-scale characterization, spatially resolved measurements are important to unveiling electronic properties. Here, we report gigahertz conductivity mapping in amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors by microwave impedance microscopy (MIM), which probes conductivity without Schottky barrier’s influence. The difference between the dc and microwave conductivities reflects the efficacy of the injection barrier in an accumulation-mode transistor. The conductivity exhibits significant nanoscale inhomogeneity in the subthreshold regime, presumably due to trapping and release from localized states. The characteristic length scale of local fluctuations, as determined by the autocorrelation analysis, is about 200 nm. Using a random-barrier model, we can simulate the spatial variation of the potential landscape, which underlies the mesoscopic conductivity distribution. Furthermore, our work provides an intuitive way to understand the charge transport mechanism in amorphous semiconductors at the microscopic level.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dendritic Computing with Multigate Ferroelectric Field-Effect Transistors

Although inspired by neuronal systems in the brain, artificial neural networks generally employ point-neurons, which offer computational complexity far less than that of their biological counterparts. Neurons have dendritic arbors that connect to different sets of synapses and offer local nonlinear accumulation – playing a pivotal role in processing and learning. Inspired by this, we propose a novel neuron design based on a multigate ferroelectric field-effect transistor that mimics dendrites. It leverages ferroelectric nonlinearity for local computations within dendritic branches while utilizing the transistor action to generate the neuronal output. The branched architecture enables smaller crossbar arrays in hardware integration, improving efficiency. Using an experimentally calibrated device-circuit-algorithm cosimulation framework, we demonstrate that networks incorporating our dendritic neurons achieve superior performance compared to much larger networks without dendrites (∼ 17× fewer trainable weight parameters). These findings suggest that dendritic hardware can significantly improve computational efficiency and learning capacity of neuromorphic systems optimized for edge applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Organic thin-film transistors with a bottom bilayer gate dielectric having a low operating voltage and high operational stability

This study reports on p-channel bottom-gate organic thin-film transistors (OTFT) that achieve low-voltage operation with a thin bilayer gate dielectric of CYTOP/HfO 2 that also leads to high operational stability. A bottom-gate geometry allows the thickness of the gate dielectric to be reduced to 17 nm, thereby increasing the gate dielectric capacitance density to a value of up to 258 nF/cm 2 . All OTFTs yielded threshold voltages (V TH ) lower than -1 V, thereby providing minimum operating voltage (gate to source voltage ~ V TH ) of -1 V with field-effect mobility values in the range from 0.3 to 0.8 cm 2 /Vs and subthreshold swing values below 100 mV/dec. Operational stability during DC bias stress was found similar to that measured in devices with a top-gate geometry, with about 1% of drain current change after 6 h. Here, using a double-stretched exponential function, the operational stability characteristics were modeled. It was found that by increasing the metal oxide layer thickness, the threshold voltage can shift toward positive values under DC stress tests. For CYTOP layer thicknesses above 15 nm, a thicker CYTOP layer was found to shift the threshold voltage in the opposite direction toward negative values. Furthermore, these p-channel bottom-gate organic transistor with a bilayer gate dielectric of CYTOP/HfO 2 combine high mobility, high operational stability, and lower voltage operation of -1 V compared to top-gate OTFTs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Maximized Hole Trapping in a Polystyrene Transistor Dielectric from a Highly Branched Iminobis(aminoarene) Side Chain

We synthesized highly branched and electron donating side chain subunits and attached them to polystyrene (PS) used as a dielectric layer in a pentacene field effect transistor. The influence of these groups on dielectric function, charge retention and threshold voltage shifts (ΔV th ) depending on their positions in dielectric multilayers was determined. We compared the observations made on an N-perphenylated iminobisaniline side chain with those from the same side chains modified with ZnO nanoparticles and with an adduct formed from tetracyanoethylene (TCNE). We also synthesized an analogue in which six methoxy groups are present instead of two amine nitrogens. At 6 mol % side chain, hopping transport was sufficient to cause shorting of the gate, while at 2 mol %, charge trapping was observable as transistor threshold voltage shifts (ΔV th ). Here, we created three types of devices: with the substituted PS layer as single layer dielectric, on top of a crosslinked PS layer but in contact with the pentacene (bilayers), and sandwiched between two PS layers in trilayers. Particularly large bias stress effects and ΔV th , larger than the hexamethoxy and previously studied dimethoxy analogs, were observed in the second case and the effects increased with the increasing electron donating properties of the modified side chains. The highest ΔV th was consistent with a majority of the side chains stabilizing trapped charge. Trilayer devices showed decreased charge storage capability compared to previous work in which we used less donating side chains but in higher concentrations. The ZnO and TCNE modifications resulted in slightly more and less negative ΔV th , respectively, when the side chain polystyrene was not in contact with the pentacene and isolated from the gate electrode. The results indicate a likely maximum combination of molecular charge stabilizing activity and side chain concentration that still allows gate dielectric function.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Domain wall enabled steep slope switching in MoS2 transistors towards hysteresis-free operation

Abstract The device concept of ferroelectric-based negative capacitance (NC) transistors offers a promising route for achieving energy-efficient logic applications that can outperform the conventional semiconductor technology, while viable operation mechanisms remain a central topic of debate. In this work, we report steep slope switching in MoS 2 transistors back-gated by single-layer polycrystalline PbZr 0.35 Ti 0.65 O 3 . The devices exhibit current switching ratios up to 8 × 10 6 within an ultra-low gate voltage window of $$V_{{{\mathrm{g}}}} = \pm \! 0.5$$ V g = ± 0.5 V and subthreshold swing (SS) as low as 9.7 mV decade −1 at room temperature, transcending the 60 mV decade −1 Boltzmann limit without involving additional dielectric layers. Theoretical modeling reveals the dominant role of the metastable polar states within domain walls in enabling the NC mode, which is corroborated by the relation between SS and domain wall density. Our findings shed light on a hysteresis-free mechanism for NC operation, providing a simple yet effective material strategy for developing low-power 2D nanoelectronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Molybdenum as a contact material in zinc tin oxide thin film transistors

Amorphous oxide semiconductors are of increasing interest for a variety of thin film electronics applications. Here, the contact properties of different source/drain electrode materials to solution-processed amorphous zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin-film transistors are studied using the transmission line method. The width-normalized contact resistance between ZTO and sputtered molybdenum is measured to be 8.7 Ω-cm, which is 10, 20, and 600 times smaller than that of gold/titanium, indium tin oxide, and evaporated molybdenum electrodes, respectively. The superior contact formed using sputtered molybdenum is due to a favorable work function lineup, an insulator-free interface, bombardment of ZTO during molybdenum sputtering, and trap-assisted tunneling. The transfer length of the sputtered molybdenum/ZTO contact is 0.34 μm, opening the door to future radio-frequency sub-micron molybdenum/ZTO thin film transistors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

A silicon nanocrystal tunnel field effect transistor

In this work, we demonstrate a silicon nanocrystal Field Effect Transistor (ncFET). Its operation is similar to that of a Tunnelling Field Effect Transistor (TFET) with two barriers in series. The tunnelling barriers are fabricated in very thin silicon dioxide and the channel in intrinsic polycrystalline silicon. The absence of doping eliminates the problem of achieving sharp doping profiles at the junctions, which has proven a challenge for large-scale integration and, in principle, allows scaling down the atomic level. The demonstrated ncFET features a 10{sup 4} on/off current ratio at room temperature, a low 30 pA/μm leakage current at a 0.5 V bias, an on-state current on a par with typical all-Si TFETs and bipolar operation with high symmetry. Quantum dot transport spectroscopy is used to assess the band structure and energy levels of the silicon island.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low bias stress and reduced operating voltage in SnCl{sub 2}Pc based n-type organic field-effect transistors

Vacuum deposited tin (IV) phthalocyanine dichloride (SnCl{sub 2}Pc) field-effect transistors were fabricated on polymethylmethacrylate/aluminum oxide (PMMA/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) bilayer gate dielectric, with reduced operating voltage and low contact resistance. The devices with top contact Ag electrodes exhibit excellent n-channel behavior with electron mobility values of 0.01 cm{sup 2}/Vs, low threshold voltages ∼4 V, current on/off ratio ∼10{sup 4} with an operating voltage of 10 V. Bias stress instability effects are investigated during long term operation using thin film devices under vacuum. We find that the amount of bias stress of SnCl{sub 2}Pc based thin film transistor is extremely small with characteristic relaxation time >10{sup 5} s obtained using stretched exponential model. Stressing the SnCl{sub 2}Pc devices by applying 10 V to the gate for half an hour results in a decrease of the source drain current, I{sub DS} of only ∼10% under low vacuum. These devices show highly stable electrical behavior under multiple scans and low threshold voltage instability under electrical dc bias stress (V{sub DS} = V{sub GS} = 10 V, for 2 h) even after 40 days.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Simulation-based design of a strained graphene field effect transistor incorporating the pseudo magnetic field effect

We present a numerical study on the performance of strained graphene-based field-effect transistors. A local strain less than 10% is applied over a central channel region of the graphene to induce the shift of the Dirac point in the channel region along the transverse momentum direction. The left and the right unstrained graphene regions are doped to be either n-type or p-type. By using the atomistic tight-binding model and a Green's function method, we predict that the gate voltage applied to the central strained graphene region can switch the drain current on and off with an on/off ratio of more than six orders of magnitude at room temperature. This is in spite of the absence of a bandgap in the strained channel region. Steeper subthreshold slopes below 60 mV/decade are also predicted at room temperature because of a mechanism similar to the band-to-band tunneling field-effect transistors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Enhancing controllability and stability of bottom-gated graphene thin-film transistors by passivation with methylamine

This paper is intended to aid to bridge the gap between chemistry and electronic engineering. In this work, the fabrication of chemical vapour deposited graphene field-effect transistors employing silicon-nitride (Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}) gate dielectric is presented, showing originally p-type channel conduction due to ambient impurities yielding uncontrollable behaviour. Vacuum annealing has been performed to balance off hole and electron conduction in the channel, leading to the observation of the Dirac point and therefore improving controllability. Non-covalent functionalisation by methylamine has been performed for passivation and stability reasons yielding electron mobility of 4800 cm{sup 2}/V s and hole mobility of 3800 cm{sup 2}/V s as well as stabilised controllable behaviour of a bottom-gated transistor. The introduction of interface charge following the non-covalent functionalisation as well as the charge balance have been discussed and analysed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Direct detection of a transport-blocking trap in a nanoscaled silicon single-electron transistor by radio-frequency reflectometry

The continuous downscaling of transistors results in nanoscale devices which require fewer and fewer charged carriers for their operation. The ultimate charge controlled device, the single-electron transistor (SET), controls the transfer of individual electrons. It is also the most sensitive electrometer, and as a result the electron transport through it can be dramatically affected by nearby charges. Standard direct-current characterization techniques, however, are often unable to unambiguously detect and resolve the origin of the observed changes in SET behavior arising from changes in the charge state of a capacitively coupled trap. Using a radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry technique, we are able to unequivocally detect this process, in very close agreement with modeling of the trap's occupation probability.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low temperature thin film transistors with hollow cathode plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition based GaN channels

We report GaN thin film transistors (TFT) with a thermal budget below 250 °C. GaN thin films are grown at 200 °C by hollow cathode plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (HCPA-ALD). HCPA-ALD-based GaN thin films are found to have a polycrystalline wurtzite structure with an average crystallite size of 9.3 nm. TFTs with bottom gate configuration are fabricated with HCPA-ALD grown GaN channel layers. Fabricated TFTs exhibit n-type field effect characteristics. N-channel GaN TFTs demonstrated on-to-off ratios (I{sub ON}/I{sub OFF}) of 10{sup 3} and sub-threshold swing of 3.3 V/decade. The entire TFT device fabrication process temperature is below 250 °C, which is the lowest process temperature reported for GaN based transistors, so far.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Computational study of heterojunction graphene nanoribbon tunneling transistors with p-d orbital tight-binding method

The graphene nanoribbon (GNR) tunneling field effect transistor (TFET) has been a promising candidate for a future low power logic device due to its sub-60 mV/dec subthreshold characteristic and its superior gate control on the channel electrons due to its one-dimensional nature. Even though many theoretical studies have been carried out, it is not clear that GNR TFETs would outperform conventional silicon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). With rigorous atomistic simulations using the p/d orbital tight-binding model, this study focuses on the optimization of GNR TFETs by tuning the doping density and the size of GNRs. It is found that the optimized GNR TFET can operate at a half of the supply voltage of silicon nanowire MOSFETs in the ballistic limit. However, a study on the effects of edge roughness on the performance of the optimized GNR TFET structure reveals that experimentally feasible edge roughness can deteriorates the on-current performance if the off-current is normalized with the low power requirement specified in the international technology roadmap for semiconductors.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Solution-processed single-walled carbon nanotube field effect transistors and bootstrapped inverters for disintegratable, transient electronics

This paper presents materials, device designs, and physical/electrical characteristics of a form of nanotube electronics that is physically transient, in the sense that all constituent elements dissolve and/or disperse upon immersion into water. Studies of contact effects illustrate the ability to use water soluble metals such as magnesium for source/drain contacts in nanotube based field effect transistors. High mobilities and on/off ratios in transistors that use molybdenum, silicon nitride, and silicon oxide enable full swing characteristics for inverters at low voltages (∼5 V) and with high gains (∼30). Dissolution/disintegration tests of such systems on water soluble sheets of polyvinyl alcohol demonstrate physical transience within 30 min.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

P-doping-free III-nitride high electron mobility light-emitting diodes and transistors

We report that a simple metal-AlGaN/GaN Schottky diode is capable of producing GaN band-edge ultraviolet emission at 3.4 eV at a small forward bias larger than ∼2 V at room temperature. Based on the surface states distribution of AlGaN, a mature impact-ionization-induced Fermi-level de-pinning model is proposed to explain the underlying mechanism of the electroluminescence (EL) process. By experimenting with different Schottky metals, Ni/Au and Pt/Au, we demonstrated that this EL phenomenon is a “universal” property of metal-AlGaN/GaN Schottky diodes. Since this light-emitting Schottky diode shares the same active structure and fabrication processes as the AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors, straight-forward and seamless integration of photonic and electronic functional devices has been demonstrated on doping-free III-nitride heterostructures. Using a semitransparent Schottky drain electrode, an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility light-emitting transistor is demonstrated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Detection of saliva-range glucose concentrations using organic thin-film transistors

We describe the development of a glucose sensor through direct incorporation of an enzyme (glucose oxidase) into the gate of an organic thin film transistor (OTFT). We show that glucose diffusion is the key determinant of the device response time and present a mechanism of glucose sensing in these devices that involves protonic doping of the transistor channel via enzymatic oxidation of glucose. The integrated OTFT sensor is sensitive across 4 decades of glucose concentration; a range that encompasses both the blood and salivary glucose concentration levels. As such, this work acts as a proof-of-concept for low-cost printed biosensors for salivary glucose.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗