Strain-induced very low noise RF MOSFETs on flexible plastic substrate

DC-RF Performance Improvement for Strained 0.13 μm MOSFETs mounted on a Flexible Plastic Substrate

“…3. These results represent an improvement over the previous ICP etching and thinning process [2]- [3] since the CMP technique avoids plasma damage. Good device performance is indicated by a fT of 103 GHz for the 0.13 tm RF MOSFETs.…”

“…The multiple-gate-finger structure was used to reduce the gate-resistance-generated thermal noise and the microstrip line layouts were designed using Metal-I as the ground plane to reduce the RF noise from the lossy Si substrate [3]. To achieve integration onto plastic, we first thinned down the Si substrate from 500 tm to 40 tm by using a Chemical Mechanical Polish (CMP) procedure.…”

“…One method to overcome the large RF loss from the passive devices is to integrate RF ICs on insulating plastic. This provides lower RF loss than the poorly isolating VLSI-standard Si substrates, and at a lower cost [1]- [3]. Thin-body Si ICs on plastic can be used for Flexible Electronics, RF ID, wireless Displays and System-on-Plastic [2]- [3], [14], since no practical flexible polymer or organic transistors have been demonstrated for the RF regime.…”

“…This provides lower RF loss than the poorly isolating VLSI-standard Si substrates, and at a lower cost [1]- [3]. Thin-body Si ICs on plastic can be used for Flexible Electronics, RF ID, wireless Displays and System-on-Plastic [2]- [3], [14], since no practical flexible polymer or organic transistors have been demonstrated for the RF regime. Additionally, the RF performance of 0.18 tm thin-body (30 gim) Si MOSFETs can be improved by applying mechanical strain, which narrows the performance gap between them and Ill-V transistors [2]- [3].…”

“…Thin-body Si ICs on plastic can be used for Flexible Electronics, RF ID, wireless Displays and System-on-Plastic [2]- [3], [14], since no practical flexible polymer or organic transistors have been demonstrated for the RF regime. Additionally, the RF performance of 0.18 tm thin-body (30 gim) Si MOSFETs can be improved by applying mechanical strain, which narrows the performance gap between them and Ill-V transistors [2]- [3]. Here we report the DC to RF performance of 0.13 gm thin-body (40 gim) Si MOSFETs on plastic, aiming to improve the RF performance.…”