Sub-5 nm Ultrathin In2O3 Transistors for High-Performance and Low-Power Electronic Applications

Linqiang Xu; Lianqiang Xu; Jun Lan; Yida Li; Qiuhui Li; Aili Wang; Ying Guo; Yee Sin Ang; Ruge Quhe; Jing Lu

doi:10.1021/acsami.4c01353

Sub-5 nm Ultrathin In₂O₃ Transistors for High-Performance and Low-Power Electronic Applications

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Apr 27. doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c01353. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Linqiang Xu^{1

2}, Lianqiang Xu³, Jun Lan⁴, Yida Li⁴, Qiuhui Li¹, Aili Wang^{5

6}, Ying Guo⁷, Yee Sin Ang², Ruge Quhe⁸, Jing Lu^{1

9

10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Physics and Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
² Science, Mathematics and Technology, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372, Singapore.
³ School of Physics and Electronic Information Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Nanostructure and Functional Materials, Ningxia Normal University, Guyuan 756000, China.
⁴ School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁵ College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁶ Zhejiang University─University of Illinois at Urbana─Champaign Institute, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China.
⁷ School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong 723001, People's Republic of China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications and School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
⁹ Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
¹⁰ Beijing Key Laboratory for Magnetoelectric Materials and Devices, Beijing 100871, China.
¹¹ Peking University Yangtze Delta Institute of Optoelectronics, Nantong 226000, China.
¹² Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.

PMID: 38676632
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c01353

Abstract

Ultrathin oxide semiconductors are promising candidates for back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible transistors and monolithic three-dimensional integration. Experimentally, ultrathin indium oxide (In₂O₃) field-effect transistors (FETs) with thicknesses down to 0.4 nm exhibit an extremely high drain current (10⁴ μA/μm) and transconductance (4000 μS/μm). Here, we employ ab initio quantum transport simulation to investigate the performance limit of sub-5 nm gate length (L_g) ultrathin In₂O₃ FETs. Based on the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) criteria for high-performance (HP) devices, the scaling limit of ultrathin In₂O₃ FETs can reach 2 nm in terms of on-state current, delay time, and power dissipation. The wide bandgap nature of ultrathin In₂O₃ (3.0 eV) renders it a suitable candidate for ITRS low-power (LP) electronics with L_g down to 3 nm. Notably, both the HP and LP ultrathin In₂O₃ FETs exhibit superior energy-delay products as compared to those of other common 2D semiconductors such as monolayer MoS₂ and MoTe₂. These findings unveil the potential of ultrathin In₂O₃ in HP and LP nanoelectronic device applications.

Keywords: ab initio quantum transport simulation; high-performance and low-power electronics; sub-5 nm gate length; ultrathin In2O3; wide bandgap.