A Focused Asymmetric Metal–Insulator–Metal Tunneling Diode: Fabrication, DC Characteristics and RF Rectification Analysis

Choi, Kwang Hyun; Yesilköy, Filiz; Ryu, Geunmin; Cho, Si Hyung; Goldsman, N.; Dagenais, M.; Peckerar, M.

doi:10.1109/ted.2011.2162414

Cited by 53 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…25 Likewise, crystallization of bottom electrode increases electrode surface roughness which can generate local electric field enhancements or hot spots. 26 Atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows an increase in surface roughness and XRD shows signs of crystallization when ZCAN is annealed at 380 C and above. In order to avoid the possibility of crystallization of either the ALD insulators or the ZCAN bottom electrodes, all devices are studied as-deposited, without annealing treatments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Alimardani

King

French

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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Articles you may be interested inEnhancing metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes via defect enhanced direct tunneling Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 082902 (2014); 10.1063/1.4893735 Conduction processes in metal-insulator-metal diodes with Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 insulators deposited by atomic layer deposition J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 32, 01A122 (2014); 10.1116/1.4843555 Impact of top electrode on electrical stress reliability of metal-insulator-metal capacitor with amorphous ZrTiO 4 film Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 133501 (2010); 10.1063/1.3377914 Influence of the electrode material on Hf O 2 metal-insulator-metal capacitors High-temperature conduction behaviors of HfO 2 / TaN -based metal-insulator-metal capacitorsThe performance of thin film metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes is investigated for a variety of large and small electron affinity insulators using ultrasmooth amorphous metal as the bottom electrode. Nb 2 O 5 , Ta 2 O 5 , ZrO 2 , HfO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and SiO 2 amorphous insulators are deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD). Reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) is utilized to measure the band-gap energy (E G ) and energy position of intrinsic sub-gap defect states for each insulator. E G of as-deposited ALD insulators are found to be Nb 2 O 5 ¼ 3.8 eV, Ta 2 O 5 ¼ 4.4 eV, ZrO 2 ¼ 5.4 eV, HfO 2 ¼ 5.6 eV, Al 2 O 3 ¼ 6.4 eV, and SiO 2 ¼ 8.8 eV with uncertainty of 60.2 eV. Current vs. voltage asymmetry, non-linearity, turn-on voltage, and dominant conduction mechanisms are compared. Al 2 O 3 and SiO 2 are found to operate based on Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. Al 2 O 3 shows the highest asymmetry. ZrO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 , and Ta 2 O 5 based diodes are found to be dominated by Frenkel-Poole emission at large biases and exhibit lower asymmetry. The electrically estimated trap energy levels for defects that dominate Frenkel-Poole conduction are found to be consistent with the energy levels of surface oxygen vacancy defects observed in REELS measurements. For HfO 2 , conduction is found to be a mix of trap assisted tunneling and Frenkel-Poole emission. Insulator selection criteria in regards to MIM diodes applications are discussed. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Alimardani

King

French

et al. 2014

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…By combining bilayer tunnel barriers with the standard approach of asymmetric metal electrodes, we are able to achieve low voltage asymmetry and non-linearity exceeding both that of standard single layer asymmetric electrode metal-insulator-metal devices as well as symmetric electrode M 1 I 1 I 2 M 1 devices. Thin film metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunnel devices have seen renewed interest for high speed applications [1][2][3] such as infrared (IR) detectors, 4-6 optical rectennas for IR energy harvesting, [7][8][9] and hot electron transistors, 10 as well as for macroelectronic applications such as backplanes for liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). 11,12 For many of these applications, highly asymmetric and non-linear current vs. voltage (I-V) behavior at low applied voltages is desired.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]14,16,18,19 We recently showed that roughness at the bottom metalinsulator interface can dominate the I-V behavior of MIM diodes and that the use of atomically smooth bottom electrodes combined with high quality insulators deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD) allowed for fabrication of high quality MIM diodes with well controlled quantum mechanical tunneling. 20,21 Therefore, we fabricate M 1 IIM 2 diodes using smooth amorphous metal ZrCuAlNi (ZCAN) bottom electrodes 22 and nanolaminate insulator bilayers of HfO 2 and Al 2 O 3 deposited via ALD.…”

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confidence: 99%

Step tunneling enhanced asymmetry in asymmetric electrode metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes

Alimardani

Conley

2013

Applied Physics Letters

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“…19 It is also important to point out that to improve the rectifying performance of a MIM tunneling diode, the sensitivity given by the ratio of second derivative and first derivative of the I-V characteristic of the diode needs to be increased. 20 The sensitivity of the diode with the insulator layer fabricated under a thermal oxidation time of 96 hours is shown in the inset of Figure 5b, and the maximum sensitivity obtained is 7.3 V −1 at V bias of 0.1 V, which is lower than the value reported in Nb-Nb 2 O 5 -Pt MIM diode. 21 This might be attributed toward the work function difference between the mental electrodes and also due to the interfacial roughness.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 68%

Fabrication of Ni-NiO-Cu Metal-Insulator-Metal Tunnel Diodes via Anodic Aluminum Oxide Templates

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2012

ECS Solid State Letters

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The Ni-NiO-Cu Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) tunnel diodes were fabricated through electrochemical deposition and thermal oxidation in the confined nanochannels of anodic aluminum oxide templates. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation reveals the diodes have a contact area of about 0.008 μm 2 , and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that the thickness of NiO insulator layers ranges from 2 nm to 12 nm. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the MIM diodes as prepared exhibit the nonlineara behavior with values strongly depending on the thermal oxidation time and the best zero bias sensitivity is 7.3 V −1 at bias voltage (V bias ) of 0.1 V.MIM tunnel diodes are attracting extensive attention due to their applications in advanced electronic devices such as hot electron transistors, 1 infrared detection, 2 switching memories 3 and rectennas. 4 In these applications, particularly interest lies in the devices operating at terahertz or higher frequencies range which are suitable for imaging, 5 sensing 6 and energy harvesting. 7 For such high frequencies, the MIM diode with a tunneling time in the order of 10 −15 s 8 for electrons is considered as an optimum candidate, since the electrons can flow between the metal electrodes via an ultra-thin insulator layer by the electric tunnel effect in this sandwich structure. Meanwhile, the electrodes with enough high work function difference exhibit non-linear current-voltage behavior that is preferred in rectification. 9 Up to now, diodes of various material combinations have been fabricated, such as Ni-NiO-Cr, 6 Nb-NbOxAg, 10 Al-AlOx-Pt. 11 However, as the MIM diode's equivalent-circuit is the parallel combination of a capacitor and a resistor, 11 the presence of parasitic capacitance restricts the cutoff frequency. 12 Hence, the low capacitance is required for high frequency rectification, that is to say the contact area between the metal layers should be minimized. Thereby the small contact area is the key factor to be considered in the fabrication of the high frequency MIM diodes, which also makes the fabrication of the MIM diode extremely challenging. 13 Currently, the main manufacturing methods to achieve the small contact area are involved in expensive equipments and complicated processing procedures such as photo or E-beam lithographic techniques. 14 Herein, we report a readily accessible approach to fabricate the NiNiO-Cu MIM diodes with a nanoscale contact area for high frequency application. This method is based on that the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template's nanochannel size ensures the small contact area of the diodes and that the NiO ultra-thin insulator layer can be prepared by naturally oxidation process, 15 overcoming some drawbacks involved in conventional fabricating procedures. The compositional, micro-structural, electrical properties of the MIM diode as prepared have also been studied. ExperimentalAn AAO template has a highly ordered nanosize pores and uniform pore depth structure, which is widely used for the fabrication of vari...

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A Focused Asymmetric Metal–Insulator–Metal Tunneling Diode: Fabrication, DC Characteristics and RF Rectification Analysis

Cited by 53 publications

References 27 publications

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Investigation of the impact of insulator material on the performance of dissimilar electrode metal-insulator-metal diodes

Step tunneling enhanced asymmetry in asymmetric electrode metal-insulator-insulator-metal tunnel diodes

Fabrication of Ni-NiO-Cu Metal-Insulator-Metal Tunnel Diodes via Anodic Aluminum Oxide Templates

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