John S. Suehle

Tin oxide gas sensor fabricated using CMOS micro-hotplates and in-situ processing

A monolithic tin oxide (SnO/sub 2/) gas sensor realized by commercial CMOS foundry fabrication (MOSIS) and postfabrication processing techniques is reported. The device is composed of a sensing film that is sputter-deposited on a silicon micromachined hotplate. The fabrication technique requires no masking and utilizes in situ process control and monitoring of film resistivity during film growth. Microhotplate temperature is controlled from ambient to 500 degrees C with a thermal efficiency of 8 degrees C/mW and thermal response time of 0.6 ms. Gas sensor responses of pure SnO/sub 2/ films to H/sub 2/ and O/sub 2/ with an operating temperature of 350 degrees C are reported. The fabrication methodology allows integration of an array of gas sensors of various films with separate temperature control for each element in the array, and circuits for a low-cost CMOS-based gas sensor system.<<ETX>>

Microhotplate Platforms for Chemical Sensor Research

Abstract This paper describes the development and use of microdevices and microarrays in chemical sensor research. The surface-micromachined “microhotplate” structure common within the various platforms included here was originally designed for fabricating conductometric gas microsensor prototypes. Microhotplate elements include functionality for measuring and controlling temperature, and measuring the electrical properties of deposited films. As their name implies, they are particularly well-suited for examining temperature-dependent phenomena on a micro-scale, and their rapid heating/cooling characteristics has led to the development of low power sensors that can be operated in dynamic temperature programmed modes. Tens or hundreds of the microhotplates can be integrated within arrays that serve as platforms for efficiently producing processing/performance correlations for sensor materials. The microdevices also provide a basis for developing new types of sensing prototypes and can be used in investigations of proximity effects and surface transient phenomena.

A Flexible Solution-Processed Memristor

A rewriteable low-power operation nonvolatile physically flexible memristor device is demonstrated. The active component of the device is inexpensively fabricated at room temperature by spinning a TiO2 sol gel on a commercially available polymer sheet. The device exhibits memory behavior consistent with a memristor, demonstrates an on/off ratio greater than 10 000 : 1, is nonvolatile for over 1.2 times 106 s, requires less than 10 V, and is still operational after being physically flexed more than 4000 times.

Electrical conduction and dielectric breakdown in aluminum oxide insulators on silicon

Leakage currents and dielectric breakdown were studied in MIS capacitors of metal-aluminum oxide-silicon. The aluminum oxide was produced by thermally oxidizing AlN at 800-1160/spl deg/C under dry O/sub 2/ conditions. The AlN films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on p-type Si (100) substrates. Thermal oxidation produced Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ with a thickness and structure that depended on the process time and temperature. The MIS capacitors exhibited the charge regimes of accumulation, depletion, and inversion on the Si semiconductor surface. The best electrical properties were obtained when all of the AlN was fully oxidized to Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ with no residual AlN. The MIS flatband voltage was near 0 V, the net oxide trapped charge density, Q/sub 0x/, was less than 10/sup 11/ cm/sup -2/, and the interface trap density, D/sub it/, was less than 10/sup 11/ cm/sup -2/ eV/sup -1/, At an oxide electric field of 0.3 MV/cm, the leakage current density was less than 10/sup -7/ A cm/sup -2/, with a resistivity greater than 10/sup 12/ /spl Omega/-cm. The critical field for dielectric breakdown ranged from 4 to 5 MV/cm. The temperature dependence of the current versus electric field indicated that the conduction mechanism was Frenkel-Poole emission, which has the property that higher temperatures reduce the current. This may be important for the reliability of circuits operating under extreme conditions. The dielectric constant ranged from 3 to 9. The excellent electronic quality of aluminum oxide may be attractive for field effect transistor applications.

A monolithic CMOS microhotplate-based gas sensor system

A monolithic CMOS microhotplate-based conductance-type gas sensor system is described. A bulk micromachining technique is used to create suspended microhotplate structures that serve as sensing film platforms. The thermal properties of the microhotplates include a 1-ms thermal time constant and a 10/spl deg/C/mW thermal efficiency. The polysilicon used for the microhotplate heater exhibits a temperature coefficient of resistance of 1.067/spl times/10/sup -3///spl deg/C. Tin(IV) oxide and titanium(IV) oxide (SnO/sub 2/,TiO/sub 2/) sensing films are grown over postpatterned gold sensing electrodes on the microhotplate using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). An array of microhotplate gas sensors with different sensing film properties is fabricated by using a different temperature for each microhotplate during the LPCVD film growth process. Interface circuits are designed and implemented monolithically with the array of microhotplate gas sensors. Bipolar transistors are found to be a good choice for the heater drivers, and MOSFET switches are suitable for addressing the sensing films. An on-chip operational amplifier improves the signal-to-noise ratio and produces a robust output signal. Isothermal responses demonstrate the ability of the sensors to detect different gas molecules over a wide range of concentrations including detection below 100 nanomoles/mole.

Disease Detection and Management via Single Nanopore-Based Sensors

Sensors Joseph E. Reiner,*,† Arvind Balijepalli,‡,§ Joseph W. F. Robertson,‡ Jason Campbell,‡ John Suehle,‡ and John J. Kasianowicz‡ †Department of Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 701 W. Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia 23284, United States ‡Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8120, United States Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Rockville, Maryland 20852, United States

Time Dependence of Bias-Stress-Induced SiC MOSFET Threshold-Voltage Instability Measurements

We have observed significant instability in the threshold voltage of 4H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors due to gate-bias stressing. This effect has a strong measurement time dependence. For example, a 20-mus-long gate ramp used to measure the I-V characteristic and extract a threshold voltage was found to result in a instability three to four times greater than that measured with a 1-s-long gate ramp. The VT instability was three times greater in devices that did not receive a NO postoxidation anneal compared with those that did. This instability effect is consistent with electrons directly tunneling in and out of near-interfacial oxide traps, which in irradiated Si MOS was attributed to border traps.

Ultrathin gate oxide reliability: physical models, statistics, and characterization

The present understanding of wear-out and breakdown in ultrathin (t/sub ox/ < 5.0 nm) SiO/sub 2/ gate dielectric films and issues relating to reliability projection are reviewed in this article. Recent evidence supporting a voltage-driven model for defect generation and breakdown, where energetic tunneling electrons induce defect generation and breakdown will be discussed. The concept of a critical number of defects required to cause breakdown and percolation theory will be used to describe the observed statistical failure distributions for ultrathin gate dielectric breakdown. Recent observations of a voltage dependent voltage acceleration parameter and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence will be presented. The current understanding of soft breakdown will be discussed and proposed techniques for detecting breakdown presented. Finally, the implications of soft breakdown on circuit functionality and the applicability of applying current reliability characterization and analysis techniques to project the reliability of future alternative gate dielectrics will be discussed.

Low electric field breakdown of thin SiO/sub 2/ films under static and dynamic stress

A comprehensive study of Time-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) of 6.5-, 9-, 15-, and 22-nm SiO/sub 2/ films under dc and pulsed bias has been conducted over a wide range of electric fields and temperatures. Very high temperatures were used at the wafer level to accelerate breakdown so tests could be conducted at electric fields as low as 4.5 MV/cm. New observations are reported for TDDB that suggest a consistent electric field and temperature dependence for intrinsic breakdown and a changing breakdown mechanism as a function of electric field. The results show that the logarithm of the median-test-time-to failure, log (t/sub 50/), is described by a linear electric field dependence with a field acceleration parameter that is not dependent on temperature. It has a value of approximately 1 decade/MV/cm for the range of oxide thicknesses studied and shows a slight decreasing trend with decreasing oxide thickness. The thermal activation E/sub a/ ranged between 0.7 and 0.95 eV for electric fields below 9.0 MV/cm for all oxide thicknesses. TDDB tests conducted under pulsed bias indicate that increased dielectric lifetime is observed under unipolar and bipolar pulsed stress conditions, but diminishes as the stress electric field and oxide thickness are reduced. This observation provides new evidence that low electric field aging and breakdown is not dominated by charge generation and trapping.

Fast temperature programmed sensing for micro-hotplate gas sensors

We describe an operating mode of a gas sensor that greatly enhances the capability of the device to determine the composition of a sensed gas. The device consists of a micromachined hotplate with integrated heater, heat distribution plate, electrical contact pads, and sensing film. The temperature programmed sensing (TPS) technique uses millisecond timescale temperature changes to modify the rates for adsorption, desorption, and reaction of gases on the sensing surface during sensor operation. A repetitive train of temperature pulses produces a patterned conductance response that depends on the gas composition, as well as the temperature pulse width, amplitude, and specific sequence of pulses. Results are shown for the vapors of water, ethanol, methanol, formaldehyde, and acetone.