Technology demonstration of a novel poly-Si nanowire thin film transistor

A simple process flow method for the fabrication of poly-Si nanowire thin film transistors (NW-TFTs) without advanced lithographic tools is introduced in this paper. The cross section of the nanowire channel was manipulated to have a parallelogram shape by combining a two-step etching process and a spacer formation technique. The electrical and temperature characteristics of the developed NW-TFTs are measured in detail and compared with those of conventional planar TFTs (used as a control). The as-demonstrated NW-TFT exhibits a small subthreshold swing (191 mV/dec), a high ON/OFF ratio (8.5 × 10⁷), a low threshold voltage (1.12 V), a decreased OFF-state current, and a low drain-induced-barrier lowering value (70.11 mV/V). The effective trap densities both at the interface and grain boundaries are also significantly reduced in the NW-TFT. The results show that all improvements of the NW-TFT originate from the enhanced gate controllability of the multi-gate over the channel.