Contact resistivities of metal-insulator-semiconductor contacts and metal-semiconductor contacts

Abstract

Applying simulations and experiments, this paper systematically compares contact resistivities (ρc) of metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contacts and metal-semiconductor (MS) contacts with various semiconductor doping concentrations (Nd). Compared with the MS contacts, the MIS contacts with the low Schottky barrier height are more beneficial for ρc on semiconductors with low Nd, but this benefit diminishes gradually when Nd increases. With high Nd, we find that even an “ideal” MIS contact with optimized parameters cannot outperform the MS contact. As a result, the MIS contacts mainly apply to devices that use relatively low doped semiconductors, while we need to focus on the MS contacts to meet the sub-1 × 10−8 Ω cm2 ρc requirement for future Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology.