NPTEL Electrical & Electronics Engineering Semiconductor Nanodevices

Miniaturization of Electronic System and Various Characteristic lengths in low dimensional systems

R. John Bosco Balaguru Professor School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering SASTRA University B. G. Jeyaprakash Assistant Professor School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering SASTRA University

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Table of Content
1. MINIATURIZATION OF ELECTRONIC SYSTEM AND MOORES LAW.........................................................................3
1.1 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................3 1.2 MERITS AND CHALLENGES OF NANOELECTRONICS BASED SYSTEM......................................................................4 1.3 ELECTRON IN MESOSCOPIC SYSTEM...............................................................................................5

2. VARIOUS CHARACTERISTIC LENGTH IN LOW DIMENSIONAL SYSTEMS................................................................7

2.1 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................7 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 How big the earth in comparison with sun?......................................................7 What is the size of atom and sub-atomic particle?.............................................7

DE BROGLIE WAVELENGTH.....................................................................................8 MEAN FREE PATH.....................................................................................................10 DIFFUSSION LENGTH...............................................................................................11 SCREENING LENGTH.....................................................................................................................12 2.6 PHASE RELAXATION LENGTH............................................................................12

3. QUIZ AND ASSIGNMENT................................................................................13

3.1 SOLUTIONS................................................................................................................14

4. REFERENCES.....................................................................................................15

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1 Miniaturization of Electronic System and Moores law

1.1 Introduction
This lecture provides you the basics of development in electronics device size and the charge transport in the reduced device size

At present, development in electronic devices means a race for a constant decrease in the dimension of device or system. Figure shows the various electronics devices development from large size vacuum/gas filled tube to single molecule based field effect transistor with size in sub nanomater level. We are well aware of the fact that we live in the age of microelectronics, a word which is derived from the size (1 m) of a devices active zone, e.g., the channel length of a field effect transistor or the thickness of a gate dielectric. However, there are substantial indications that we are entering another era, namely the age of nanotechnology. The word nanoelectronics is again derived from the typical geometrical dimension of an electronic device, which is in nanometer (10-9) scale and leads to achieve the Moores predicated law.

The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits roughly doubles every year. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months.

A typical electronic device of the fifties was a single device with a dimension of 1 cm, while the age of microelectronics began in the eighties. Figure 1 indicates the size of device as a function of time and it indicate the beginning of nanoelectronics from the year 2010. These predictions are not restricted to nanoelectronics alone but can also be valid for materials, methods, and systems.
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Fig. 1. Device size as a function of time

1.2 Merits and Challenges of Nanoelectronics based system

The reduction in product size is due to shrinking the size of individual electronic devices, such as transistors. This reduction also, of course, can lead to improved functionality, as more devices can be packed into a given area. There are direct economic advantages of small device size as well, since the cost of integrated circuit chips is related to the number of chips that can be produced per silicon wafer. Therefore, higher device density leads to more chips per wafer, and reduced cost. Also, as electronics shrink, the possibility of further incorporating electronics with biological systems (see the adjacent figure) rapidly

expands.Thus, reduced electronic devices size have advantages like high frequency operation, superior functionality and low power consumption coupled with lesser costs. New effects, like resonant tunneling, quantum electrical conductance, coulomb blockade, Quantum Hall effects, etc. makes low dimensional based electronic devices to have enhanced performance and practical devices like single electron transistors, quantum well lasers,
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and optical modulators, etc. were work on these effects. Therefore, there are many factors driving the miniaturization of electronic devices.

However, in reality, these reduced dimensions affect almost all electrical parameters like amplification, transconductance, frequency limits, power consumption, leakage currents, etc. which we are going to see in the subsequent modules. In integrated chip, if 100 transistors were fabricated with a size close or greater than 100nm, then charge transport can be treated classically. However if the same number of transistors fabricated to a size ~10nm; then classical theories does not fold . The devices with a size of 10nm can be described quantum mechanically. Also, there are significant challenges / problems in shrinking conventional devices to the nanoscale such as device fabrication, operation and heat dissipation. Let we see how the reduced dimensional device reflects in charge transport.

1.3 Electron in Mesoscopic system

The word mesoscopic deals with the size lying between macroscopic and the microscopic or atomic system. The mesoscopic size usually ranges from a few nanometers to 100nm and also called as nanostructures. In terms of material dimension, nanostructures can be broadly categories as zero dimension (0D), one dimension (1D) and two dimension (2D) nanomaterials. The charge transport in these reduced dimensions is unique when compared with its bulk one. For example, it is well known that the conductance G of a macroscopic conductor is given as

G =

A L

(1)

Where is the conductivity and the intrinsic property of the material, A is the area of cross-section of the material, and L is its length. So the conductance decreases as the cross-sectional area is reduced and it increases as the length of the conductor is reduced.
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One may suspect that the conductance goes to infinitely large values as the length of the conductor is made extremely small. But this is not true. The above mentioned simple scaling law (or the so-called ohmicbehaviour) breaks down at mesoscopic length scales (sub-micrometer length scales). It does not become infinite, but it reaches a limiting value G c which we will see in the subsequent module of this course. To understand the cause of the breakdown of this simple scaling law, one has to take into account the quantum nature of the electrons, according to which, the electron is not a classical tiny charged particle, but a quantum mechanical wave-particle. This wave character of the electron is responsible for many analogies in the field of Anderson localization, propagation of light through a random medium, and mescoscopic conduction through a disordered sample with static disorder. Thus, the mesoscopic length scales (usually ) can also be defined as length scales at which the wave character of electrons has definite effect on the measurable physical properties, such as conductance. The conductance no longer monotonically varies in a field effect transistor if gate voltage is varied but it shows `jumps' or `steps' in units of:

Gc =

2e 2 (2) h

This is a universal character and independent of material. Thus when the size of the system becomes smaller, the electrical conductance does not obey classical transport.

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2 Various Characteristic in low dimensional systems

2.1 Introduction
This lecture provides you the different scale for defining the dimension of a physical system or device or materials size in low scale

2.1.1 How big the earth in comparison with sun?

If the radius of the earth isassumed to be a width of an ordinary paper clip then the radius of the sun would be roughly the height of a desk, and the sun would be about 100 times of earth (see the adjacent figure).

2.1.2 What is the size of atom and sub-atomic

particle?
The typical size of an atom is about 1 (10-10m). There are electrons orbiting around the atomic nucleus having size less than 10-18m. Centre of atom where

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almost all the mass of an atom concentrates is called the nucleus, which has a typical size of 10-14m. The nucleus consists of protons and neutrons having a size of 10-15m. The size of an entity varies from less than to 10-18m to 1391980 km the diameter of sun. All the matter is composed of atom and hence the electrons state and energy decides the properties of the matter. The electron in different nanostructures has wavelike properties and the behaviour depends on the shape of the structures. Thus the states of the electrons in low dimensional systems are wavelike and the transport is similar to wave propagation in the waveguides. To describe the behaviour of electrons in low dimensional system, it is convenient to define few characteristics length. These characteristics length are bench mark, below this size, if the electrons are confined, then the materials may has new properties than in its bulk form. Let we see the various characteristics lengths defined in mesoscopic systems.

2.2 de Broglie wavelength

In 1924, Louis de Broglie, a French physicist, suggested that the wave-particle dualism. He proposed that every kind of particle has both wave and particle properties. Figure 2 shows the wave nature associated with electrons in each orbit of an atom

Fig. 2. The standing de Broglie wave of electrons in an atom

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Small particles like electron with momentum p, has wavelike properties and the wavelength associated with it is given by de Broglie wavelength

h h = * p mv

(3)

Where m* is the effective electron mass. In semiconductor, the electrons behaves dynamically and has m* instead of rest mass m o as in vacuum. In semiconductors like GaAs and InSb, where m* is lesser than m o and it shows that for smaller effective mass, larger the de Broglie wavelength and is easier to observe the quantum effect in nanostructures. Hence in the semiconductor nanostructure new properties can be observed if one or two dimension is in the order of de Broglie wavelength. If the velocity v is given to an electron by accelerating it through a potential difference V, then the work done on the electron is eV. This work done is converted into the kinetic energy of the electron, thus

1 mv 2 = eV 2

mv = 2meV

(4)

If we ignore the relativistic considerations, then m* = m o, the rest mass of the electron, then using eqn (4) in (3), the wavelength associated with the electron

h 2meV

1.227 V

nm

(5)

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2.3 Mean free path

The length covered by an electron between two inelastic collisions with impurities or phonons is termed as mean free path. In metals, the mean free paths of electrons were in the order of nm, while in pure semiconductors in the order of micron at mK temperatures. Below this scale, the electron transport becomes ballistic and classical concepts i.e. the diffuse motion of electrons will be no more applicable. The mean free path of a single species of gas is given by

lm =

1 n

(6)

where n is the gas density and is the collisional cross section. The mean free path expression for nitrogen can be obtained approximately using ideal gas equation:

P=
n=

N KT = nkT V
P kT
(7 )

where V is the volume occupied by the gas, n is the total number of gas particles, and k is Boltzmann's constant. The term N/V is the density, n. using equation (7) in (6), the mean free path for gas particles is

lm =

kT P

(8)

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The collisional cross section

= d 2 , where d is the gas molecule diameter. It is also

representing a measure of area (centered on the centre of mass of one particle) through which the particles cannot pass each other without colliding. If we treat the nitrogen molecule as hard sphere, then the diameter of nitrogen molecule is twice of diameter of single nitrogen atom. For any gas particle, the diffusion length is in the order of nanometer.

2.4 Diffusion length

If excess carriers are injected into a semiconductor they diffuse away from the point of injection. As they diffuse they recombine at a rate described by their lifetime and within a certain distance the excess carrier density falls to zero. This distance is called the diffusion length of carriers. It can also be defined as the average length a carrier moves between generation and recombination. In low dimensional materials of reduced size L, the electrons transport may be either in ballistic or diffusive type depending upon means free path and size. If diffusion length is far greater than L, the electrons follows ballistic transport i.e., transports without scattering with impurities of phonons; however the surface is the only scattering centre. If l m << L, the electron transport follows diffusion process characterised by diffusion coefficient D e . The diffusion length l d is then given by l d = D e
De = kT e e

(9) (10)

Where e is the relaxation time, k= Boltzmann constant, e = mobility of electron at the temperature T.

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2.5 Screening length

The ionized form of impurities or dopants in extrinsic semiconductors acts as scattering centre. The free opposite charge carriers screens the dopants and hence the net electric potential due to dopant or impurities over distance is reduced. The screening length l s is given as

ls =

kT
e2n
(11)

where e, and n were electronic charge, dielectric constant and carrier concentration. l s usually lie in the range of 10 to100 nm, and thus it indicate the attenuation of charge disturbance. Above expression shows the screening length for metal is less than semiconductors. The coulomb and screening potential can be correlated as

SP

e r / s = r

(12)

where = 1/4 0. As s tends to infinity, the screening effect disappears, giving Coulombic potential. The screening effect discussed above is not only for an impurity or dopant, but it is related to any charge carrier perturbation.

2.6 Phase - relaxation length

The phase-relaxation length l is the average distance that an electron travels before it experiences inelastic scattering which destroys its initial coherent state. Typical scattering events, such as electron-phonon or electron-electron collisions, change the energy of the electron and randomize its quantum-mechanical phase. Impurity scattering may also contribute to phase relaxation if the impurity has an internal degree of freedom
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so that it can change its state. For example, magnetic impurities have an internal spin that fluctuates with times. In high mobility degenerate semiconductors, phase relaxation often occurs on a timescale which is of the same order or shorter than the momentumrelaxation time m . Then the phase relaxation length is

I = v f

(13)

where V f is the Fermi velocity. In low-mobility semiconductors the momentumrelaxation time m can be considerably shorter than the phase-relaxation time and diffusive motion may occur over a phase-coherent region; then

l = D
where D is the diffusion constant and is equal to v 2 f m 2 .

(14)

3 Quiz and Assignment

1. At ______________ length, materials does not obeys ohms law 2. Electronic devices in the fifties were in the size of _____________ cm. 3. The conductance of low dimensional shows steps in units of __________. 4. The new effects like_____________, ______________, _________________, and ___________ were observed in low dimensional system. 5. In low dimensional materials, electron is treated as________ 6. At what condition, the transport of electron is ballistic a. L < l m b. L < l c. L > l m d. L > l 7. What is the diffusion coefficient of Ge at 303K, if it has a mobility of 1880 cm2V1s1? 8. An object with 50cm3 volume has mass of 250g and flies with a velocity of 75 m/sec for 10 min. What is the de Broglie wavelength associated with it? Can we observe the wave associated it? 9. What is the wavelength of an electron moving at 5.31 x 106 m/sec? Given: mass of electron = 9.11 x 10-31 kg and h = 6.626 x 10-34 Js
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10. A Silicon P-N junction photodiode has a uniform cross sectional area of 0.04cm2. The diffusion constants of the electrons and holes at room temperature were D n =35cm2/sec and D p =12.5cm2/sec. Hole lifetime in N- region is p =100sec; and electron life time in the P-region is n =35sec. Calculate the Debye length for holes in N region and electrons in P region. 11. Calculate number of gas particle in a chamber having pressure of 2MPa at 300k. 12. Calculate the limiting resistance in low dimensional materials.

3.1 Solutions
1. mesoscopic 2. 1 cm 2e 2 3. Gc = h 4. resonant tunneling, quantum electrical conductance, coulomb blockade, Quantum Hall effects 5. wave nature 6. Ans. (a) 7. kT D= e 1880 x1.3806 x10 23 x303 = = 48.97 cm 2 s 1.602 x10 19 8. The de Broglie wavelength is given by, h = mv 6.62 x 10 34 = (250 x 10 3 x 75)

= 3.53 x 10 35 m Reason: No, since the wavelength associated it is very small compared to the volume of the object. Hence the wave nature associated to it is not explicit.
9. de Broglie's equation is

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= =

h mv 6.626 x 10 34 9.11x 10 31 x 5.31x 10 6

= 1.37 x 10 10 m = 1.37 A o

10. In the N-region, L p = D p p = 12.5 x10 4 = 3.5 x10 2 cm In the P-region, Ln = Dn n = 35 x35 x10 6 = 3.5 x10 2 cm 11.

2 10 6 P = = 5 10 26 n= 23 kT 1.380 10 300

12. We know

Gc =

2e 2 h 1 R= Gc

6.625 x10 34 = 12.9k 19 2 = 2 x(1.602 x10 )

4 References
[1] J.M. Martinez- Duart, R.J.Martin-Palma, F. Agullo-Rueda, Nanotechnology for Microelectronics and Optoelectronics, Elsevier, 2006. [2] William D. Callister, Jr. , Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering-An Interactive e-text, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , 2001. [3] Guozhong Cao, Nanostructures & Nanomaterials Synthesis, Properties & Applications, Imperial College Press, 2004.
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