We improved Smith and Ahmed's nanowire singleelectron transistor (SET) to change its operating temperature from 4.2 o K to room temperature. We made more than 1000 nanotechnology SETs on the fabrication line. We characterized their faults, the yield, the dependence of faults on the process, and the correlation between channel width and faults. We improved the SET process recipe. SETs are made on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers using an E-beam lithography machine (the Raith 150) to create two L-shaped trenches in the Si; these are etched through to the SiO 2 insulating layer using reactive ion etching (RIE). After process improvements, our yield was 24.3% working SETs, of which 79.4% had significant Coulomb oscillations at room temperature. Also, 20.6% of the SETs had stuck-open transistors, 50.7% had resistive bridges, and 4.4% had gross defects, from severe fabrication line contamination.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.