Sub-10 nm diameter InGaAs vertical nanowire MOSFETs

We present the first sub-10 nm diameter vertical nanowire transistors of any kind in any semiconductor system. These devices are InGaAs MOSFETs fabricated by a top-down approach using reactive ion etching, alcohol-based digital etch and Ni alloyed contacts. A record Ion of 350 μA/μm at Ioff = 100 nA/μm and Vdd = 0.5 V is obtained in a 7 nm diameter device. The same device exhibits a peak transconductance (gm, pk) of 1.7 mS/μm and minimal subthreshold swing (S) of 90 mV/dec at Vds = 0.5 V, achieving the highest quality factor (defined as the ratio gm, pk/S) of 19 reported in vertical nanowire transistors. Excellent scaling behavior is observed with gm, pk and Ion increasing as the diameter is shrunk down to 7 nm.