AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS1-TuM

Paper NS1-TuM2
Nanoelectronic Device Characterization: Correlating Internal Nanoscale Chemical and Physical Structure with Electrical Behaviour

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 8:20 am, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Structures and Characterization II
Presenter: D.R. Stewart, Hewlett Packard Labs
Authors: W.F. Stickle, Hewlett Packard Company
D.R. Stewart, Hewlett Packard Labs
J.J. Blackstock, Hewlett Packard Labs
C.L. Donley, Hewlett Packard Labs
R.S. Williams, Hewlett Packard Labs
Correspondent: Click to Email
In emerging nanoscale electronic devices, the critical active layers within the device stacks have been reduced to only a few nanometers thick. Detailed understanding of the nanoscale physical and chemical structures of these layers and interfaces is essential for understanding and engineering the electronic behavior of such devices. Unfortunately, these critical layers are almost always buried underneath complex materials stacks, deposited in steps that often induce physical and chemical modifications. Reliable data on the nanoscale chemical and physical structure of the devices can only be obtained from challenging in-situ investigations. We present new techniques for accessing the internal chemical and physical structure of nanoscale layers and interfaces buried within complex device stacks. We present in-situ UHV spectroscopy and scanning-probe-microscopy data acquired using these techniques from critical nanoscale layers within experimental nanoelectronic devices being developed at HP Labs. These data are compared with data acquired using conventional techniques (such as depth-profiling and pre-fabrication characterization) to demonstrate additional information these new techniques can provide. Finally, we illustrate the importance of such detailed characterization by correlating understanding of the nanoscale physical and chemical structure of our experimental nanoelectronic devices to their electrical properties. Using information from these new techniques allows us to postulate a new model for the electrical switching behaviour of our devices, based on the electrochemical behaviour of metal-oxide species within the critical nanoscale layers of our devices.