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Colloquium | Materials Science

2D Materials for Logic and BEOL Interconnect Applications

Microelectronics Colloquium Series

Abstract: 2D materials have unique properties that can be utilized in designing next-generation logic and interconnects or novel devices for logic computation and information storage at the back-end-of-line (BEOL). In this talk, I will present the evaluation of some 2D materials as an alternative barrier/liner to replace the conventional TaN/Ta bilayer in Cu interconnects, showing these 2D materials are capable of efficiently blocking Cu diffusion and their atomically thin body thickness can maximize Cu volume in ultrascaled interconnects to achieve lower line resistance. We observe that the lifetime of the dielectrics surrounding Cu electrodes can be significantly extended with the presence of the 2D barriers, providing strong evidence for promising alternative barrier/liner solutions.

In the 2nd half of my talk, I will report ultra-scaled 2D field-effect transistors (FETs) with excellent onstate and off-state performance and discuss the importance of channel body thickness in suppressing the undesired short channel effect. Interestingly, it was observed that a top gate in a Schottky barrier (SB) FET only enhances the channel conductance but has a limited impact on the contact resistance. A modified device geometry is proposed to improve the gate-dependent contact resistance in a 2D SB-FET. Moreover, various doping schemes will be presented to show record-high performance.

Bio: Zhihong Chen is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. She has become the Director of the SRC nCORE NEW LIMITS Center since 2018, and the Associated Director of Research for Birck Nanotechnology Center in 2019.