Devices made on single crystal silicon nanoparticles

The interchip delay and performance mismatch at the chip level degrades the system performance. Further increases in system performance will require one to move from integrated circuits assembled on a board to true integrated systems. All the devices that perform different functions are put on a single substrate. Using this method, the interconnect distance decreases from centimeters to micrometers, thus dramatically decreasing the delay. Also, much of the chip level mismatch is eliminated.; The single crystal silicon nanoparticle is a good candidate for one of the primary building blocks of such an integrated system. The devices made on silicon are stable; carrier mobility in single crystal silicon is reasonably high; modern silicon manufacturing infrastructure can be used to make silicon nanoparticle devices easily; and there exists a technology to localize the particles. In addition, the particle is a 3-D structure, making it possible to build a compact 3-D integrated system.; In this thesis, a vacuum system was built to generate single crystal silicon nanoparticles. The particles were generated in a silane plasma, focused by aerodynamic lens and annealed in flight using a high temperature furnace. Single crystal silicon nanoparticles as large as 100 nm have been obtained.; MSM (Metal-Silicon-Metal) structure was made on the silicon particles and the current-voltage (I-V) relationship through the particles was obtained. Thermionic theory and space charge limited current theory were used to explain the operation of the device. Schottky barrier height and trap density were obtained. SBFETs (Schottky Barrier Field Effect Transistors) were also built. Devices show PMOS characteristics and asymmetric characteristics to the zero drain voltage.; Numerical simulation was performed on the MSM structure and SBFET to help understand the mechanism of device performance. I-V relationship generally shows good agreement with the measured result. Contours of band structure and carrier density were obtained to help understand device operation. Simulation of SBFET with different parameters helps clarify the effects of the device structure such as the effect of the gate oxide thickness and the gate length. This understanding provides the direction of the future nanoparticle device work.