Joule-assisted silicidation for short-channel silicon nanowire devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Joule-assisted silicidation technique that allows precise electrical control of silicon nanowire contact formation, enabling the fabrication of ultra-short channels down to 8 nm for advanced nanoelectronic devices.

Contribution

It presents a novel real-time monitoring method for controlled silicidation in silicon nanowires, achieving precise channel length regulation at the nanometer scale.

Findings

Controlled silicidation down to 8 nm channels

Real-time resistance monitoring enables precise fabrication

Nickel-silicide/silicon/nickel-silicide device creation

Abstract

We report on a technique enabling electrical control of the contact silicidation process in silicon nanowire devices. Undoped silicon nanowires were contacted by pairs of nickel electrodes and each contact was selectively silicided by means of the Joule effect. By a realtime monitoring of the nanowire electrical resistance during the contact silicidation process we were able to fabricate nickel-silicide/silicon/nickel- silicide devices with controlled silicon channel length down to 8 nm.