Christos D. Dimitrakopoulos

100-GHz Transistors from Wafer-Scale Epitaxial Graphene

The maximum switching frequency of these devices exceeds that of silicon transistors with similar gate-electrode dimensions. The high carrier mobility of graphene has been exploited in field-effect transistors that operate at high frequencies. Transistors were fabricated on epitaxial graphene synthesized on the silicon face of a silicon carbide wafer, achieving a cutoff frequency of 100 gigahertz for a gate length of 240 nanometers. The high-frequency performance of these epitaxial graphene transistors exceeds that of state-of-the-art silicon transistors of the same gate length.

Organic thin-film transistors: a review of recent advances

In this paper we review recent progress in materials, fabrication processes, device designs, and applications related to organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), with an emphasis on papers published during the last three years. Some earlier papers that played an important role in shaping the OTFT field are included, and a number of previously published review papers that cover that early period more completely are referenced. We also review in more detail related work that originated at IBM during the last four years and has led to the fabrication of high-performance organic transistors on flexible, transparent plastic substrates requiring low operating voltages.

Wafer-Scale Graphene Integrated Circuit

Components such as inductors were fabricated alongside graphene transistors to create integrated radio-frequency mixers. A wafer-scale graphene circuit was demonstrated in which all circuit components, including graphene field-effect transistor and inductors, were monolithically integrated on a single silicon carbide wafer. The integrated circuit operates as a broadband radio-frequency mixer at frequencies up to 10 gigahertz. These graphene circuits exhibit outstanding thermal stability with little reduction in performance (less than 1 decibel) between 300 and 400 kelvin. These results open up possibilities of achieving practical graphene technology with more complex functionality and performance.

Graphene: synthesis and applications

Graphene, since the demonstration of its easy isolation by the exfoliation of graphite in 2004 by Novoselov, Geim and co-workers , has been attracting enormous attention in the scientific community . Because of its unique properties, high hopes have been placed on it for technological applications in many areas. Here we will briefly review aspects of two of these application areas: analog electronics and photonics/optoelectronics. We will discuss the relevant material properties, device physics, and some of the available results. Of course, we cannot rely on graphite exfoliation as the source of graphene for technological applications, so we will start by introducing large scale graphene growth techniques.

N-type organic thin-film transistor with high field-effect mobility based on a N,N′-dialkyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide derivative

N,N′-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C8H) thin films have been implemented into organic thin-film field-effect transistors. Mobilities up to 0.6 cm2 V−1 s−1 and current on/off ratios >105 were obtained. Linear regime mobilities were typically half of those measured in the saturation regime. X-ray studies in reflection mode suggest a spacing of ∼20 A for thin evaporated films of PTCDI-C8H, which is consistent with the value of ∼21±2 A obtained from our simulations when an interdigitated packing structure is assumed.

High-performance bottom electrode organic thin-film transistors

Pentacene-based organic field effect transistors (FETs) exhibit enormous potential as active elements in a number of applications. One significant obstacle to commercial application remains: no completely lithographic process exists for forming high-performance devices. Processing constraints prevent electrodes from being lithographically patterned once the semiconductor is deposited, but depositing the electrodes before the semiconductor leads to low-performance transistors. By using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to change the surface energy of the metal electrodes and morphology of the pentacene subsequently grown on the electrodes, high-performance transistors may be formed using a process compatible with lithographic definition of the source and drain electrodes.

State-of-the-Art Graphene High-Frequency Electronics

High-performance graphene transistors for radio frequency applications have received much attention and significant progress has been achieved. However, devices based on large-area synthetic graphene, which have direct technological relevance, are still typically outperformed by those based on mechanically exfoliated graphene. Here, we report devices with intrinsic cutoff frequency above 300 GHz, based on both wafer-scale CVD grown graphene and epitaxial graphene on SiC, thus surpassing previous records on any graphene material. We also demonstrate devices with optimized architecture exhibiting voltage and power gains reaching 20 dB and a wafer-scale integrated graphene amplifier circuit with voltage amplification.

Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited α,ω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator

Abstract Insulated-gate field-effect transistors (IGFETs) comprising molecular beam deposited α,ω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene (DH6T) as the semiconductor layer and different polymeric gate insulators were fabricated and tested. Field-effect mobility values up to 0.13 cm 2 V −1 s −1 were obtained, which are the highest values obtained from thin-film transistors of DH6T.

Infrared Spectroscopy of Wafer-Scale Graphene

We report spectroscopy results from the mid- to far-infrared on wafer-scale graphene, grown either epitaxially on silicon carbide or by chemical vapor deposition. The free carrier absorption (Drude peak) is simultaneously obtained with the universal optical conductivity (due to interband transitions) and the wavelength at which Pauli blocking occurs due to band filling. From these, the graphene layer number, doping level, sheet resistivity, carrier mobility, and scattering rate can be inferred. The mid-IR absorption of epitaxial two-layer graphene shows a less pronounced peak at 0.37 ± 0.02 eV compared to that in exfoliated bilayer graphene. In heavily chemically doped single-layer graphene, a record high transmission reduction due to free carriers approaching 40% at 250 μm (40 cm(-1)) is measured in this atomically thin material, supporting the great potential of graphene in far-infrared and terahertz optoelectronics.

High Performance 45-nm SOI Technology with Enhanced Strain, Porous Low-k BEOL, and Immersion Lithography

We present a 45-nm SOI CMOS technology that features: i) aggressive ground-rule (GR) scaling enabled by 1.2NA/193nm immersion lithography, ii) high-performance FET response enabled by the integration of multiple advanced strain and activation techniques, iii) a functional SRAM with cell size of 0.37mum2, and iv) a porous low-k (k=2.4) dielectric for minimized back-end wiring delay. The list of FET-specific performance elements includes enhanced dual-stress liner (DSL), advanced eSiGe, stress memorization (SMT), and advanced anneal (AA). The resulting PFET/NFET Idsat values, at Vdd of 1.0V and 45nm GR gate pitch, are 840muA/mum and 1240muA/mum respectively. The global wiring delay achieved with k=2.4 reflects a 20% reduction compared to k=3.0