A step towards germanium nanoelectronics
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 11:28
in Physics & Chemistry
The use of germanium instead of silicon as basic material of transistors would enable faster chips containing smaller transistors. However, a number of problems still have to be solved. Transistors are produced using foreign atoms that are implanted into the semiconductor material so that it becomes partly conducting. As this production step damages the material, it has to be repaired by subsequent annealing. So far it has not been possible to produce large-scale integrated transistors of a specific type (NMOS) using germanium. The reason: phosphorus atoms are strongly redistributed within the material during annealing. Two novel techniques can now overcome this dilemma.