Improved current saturation and shifted switching threshold voltage in In2O3 nanowire based, fully transparent NMOS inverters via femtosecond laser annealing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that femtosecond laser annealing enhances current saturation and shifts threshold voltages in In2O3 nanowire NMOS inverters, enabling better circuit performance on low-temperature, transparent substrates.

Contribution

It introduces a femtosecond laser annealing technique to optimize nanowire transistor parameters, facilitating large-scale integration of transparent nanowire-based circuits.

Findings

Improved source-drain current saturation in In2O3 nanowire transistors.

Shifted threshold voltage to positive direction for better circuit matching.

Enhanced noise margin in nanowire NMOS inverters.

Abstract

Transistors based on various types of non-silicon nanowires have shown great potential for a variety of applications, especially for those require transparency and low-temperature substrates. However, critical requirements for circuit functionality such as saturated source-drain current, and matched threshold voltages of individual nanowire transistors in a way that is compatible with low temperature substrates, have not been achieved. Here we show that femtosecond laser pulses can anneal individual transistors based on In2O3 nanowires, improve the saturation of the source-drain current, and permanently shift the threshold voltage to the positive direction. We applied this technique and successfully shifted the switching threshold voltages of NMOS based inverters and improved their noise margin, in both depletion and enhancement modes. Our demonstration provides a method to trim the parameters of individual nanowire transistors, and suggests potential for large-scale integration of nanowire-based circuit blocks and systems.