22nd Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference, May 2004

Rahman, M

Design and Fabrication of Tri-Gated FinFET

Mohammed R.Rahman
Abstract- A Tri Gated Fin Field Effect Transistor is on of
the many novel devices that may be replacing planar
MOSFETs, by reducing short channel effects. The
FinFET has emerged as one of the most promising double
gate structures primarily because of its ease of
manufacturing. There are still significant challenges to
overcome it in order to make the process available
commercially. The Tri-Gated FinFET is tri-gated meaning
that the gate overlaps the top and the two sides of the FIN.
Three dimensionally the gate depletes three surfaces of the
FIN, which results in a higher drive current relative to a
planar MOSFET. In order to reduce current crowding in
the Fin corners, we have curved the corners using oxide
etch back process. FinFETs has been built previously at
Rochester Institute of Technology. We have designed and
fabricated Tri-Gated FinFETs of various geometries.
Electrical test showed poor performance of the devices.
Proper scrutiny of the electrical results and the SEM
micrographs allowed us to conclude that if LTO or Nitride
is used as etch hard mask for silicon fin etch, electrical
results closer to that of an ideal NMOS transistor could
would be achieved.
Key Words: FinFET, MOSFET, SOI, Ion Implant, DIBL
and Ballistic Transport.
of manufacturability using well-understood Planar MOS
process steps.
1.2 Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) Substrate

1.Introduction:
1.1 Need for FinFET
The scaling of planar MOS is approaching the practical limits.
With the scaling of the channel length below 50nm complex
channel profiles are required to achieve desired threshold
voltages and to eliminate short channel effects. Some of the
proposed bulk structures for 50nm and beyond include Silicon
on nothing (SON-planar ultra thin dual gate), Vertical MOS,
Delta Doped MOSFET, etc. In all these structures, bulk
doping concentration need to be increased to suppress the
short channel effect; this degrades mobility, worsens subthreshold swing and increase parasitic junction capacitance
[1]. Essentially, the short channel effect reflects the extent of
drain-bias influence on channel potential. In order to increase
gate control electrostatics, the entire channel semiconductor
needs to be brought closer to the gate [1]. SOI (silicon on
insulator) technologies such as Full-Depleted, Ground-plane
and Double gate achieve this by using a thin silicon film
controlled by one or more gates [1]. Researchers have shown
through extensive Monte Carlo simulations that multi-gated
structures are scalable to the lowest channel length for a given
insulator thickness [2]. The FinFET is a dual or tri-gated
structure that has become one of the most important choices
for its ease
implantation defines the BOX depth and the BOX thickness
is limited to about 0.5um.

If additional Si thickness is required, an epitaxial Si

layer can be grown to provide this additional
thickness. [3]

The figure 1 below shows the cross section of a SOI wafer.

From the above process steps, it is seen that the BOX height is
kept fairly low, and the reason for this is that the BOX is not a
good thermal conductor. Thus the heat does not dissipate
properly with thick BOX.
1.3The FinFET
Figure 1. SOI Wafer
One of the most common ways to manufacture SOI wafers is
by using SIMOX technology. The following process steps are
done to make a SOI wafer [3].

The figure 2 below shows the tilted 3-D cross section of the
Fin-FET.

The starting material is typically a (100) device quality

wafer. The wafer is first subjected to a high dose (~2 x
1018/cm2) oxygen (O+ ) ion implantation step at high enough
energy (150-300KeV) so the peak (projected range) of the
implant is deep within the silicon) 0.3-0.5um). This step is
usually carried out with the wafers held at >4000C to ensure
that the silicon maintains its crystallinity during the
implantation.
The wafers are given a post-implant anneal in N2 for
sufficient time (3-5 hours) at a relatively high temperature
(1100-11750C). This step forms a buried oxide (BOX) layer
of silicon dioxide near the peak of the implantation and
removes any many of the defects (dislocations) formed
during the ion implantation step. The depth of the ion

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Rahman, M

Figure 2. 3D Tilted Cross Section of the FinFET [4]

Figure 2 above shows the 3D tilted cross section of the FinFET. The gate overlaps the fin from 3 sides. It is a type of Trigated MOSFET. The initial silicon doping before patterning is
the same as the bulk substrate as shown above in the SOI
manufacturing. Like
the conventional planar MOS the fin under the gate is
externally undoped. The rest of the silicon is doped with
opposite polarity similar to a planar MOS. If the starting
substrate were p-type 100 orientation SOI, the Fin and the
source/drain would be doped with n-type dopants. The region
under the gate would remain at the doping level of the starting
material. At the assigned turn on gate voltage, channel would
be formed in three faces of the fin, which further will define
the FinFET state of operation. It has to be understood that
three surfaces are getting inverted unlike single surface
inversion of a planar MOSFET. The gate is high-doped
n+polysilicon or insitu doped SiXGeY which will be discussed
in the later sections. Our FinFet Gate metal was n+polysilicon.
2.Theory
The FinFET is a symmetric three-gate structure. This means
that both the front back and the top gates have the same work
function and are tied to the same bias, so all the three surface
channels turn on at the same time. In this section the
mathematical modeling of the symmetric double gate
MOSFET/ FinFET Electrostatics are first explained which is
followed by the Design theory, Scaling effects. Mathematical
modeling for a tri-gated FinFET is still under investigation
and no journal has been published. It will be similar to that of
a DG-FinFET and the only difference will be an addition of a
top transistor to the DGFinFET modeling results. The
modeling of the top gate in the first order will just be an
addition of a transistor, which is the same as a planar
MOSFET, with the width of the Fin defining the width of the
planar MOSFET. Thus for simplicity, we derive the current
equations for a DG-FinFET in the next subsection.

22nd Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference, May 2004

2.1 Mathematical Modeling of the FinFET.

Reference [5] describes initial framework of the FinFET
model with given constraints and the results are applicable for
any kind of double gate MOSFET. For simplicity, the
important results are written in the paper. I have modified a
number of equations of reference 5 for simplifying the models
to only symmetric Double Gate/ FinFET structure. Figure 3b
[ref 5] shows the 3D view of the FinFET showing only the
silicon Fin and the two gates and figure 3b is a top down
schematic.

Figure 3a. FinFET

Schematic of the FinFET.

Figure 3b.2D Top Down

In the modeling, current for the two interfaces are calculated
separately and added together. W or the width is the height of
the FinFET .The vertical charge distribution provides a weigh
to form a weighted sum of the contribution from the 2 currents
at the 2 surfaces [5].
The drain current at one of the surfaces is given by

Csi
n1 = 1 +
Csi + COX
where qI is the normalized inversion layer charge given by
Qinv/Cox t. Vch is the quasi Fermi potential in the channel and
the current flows in the positive y direction. The inversion
charge in the channel can also be expressed by

(3)

An expression for current in terms of charge is obtained as

Integrating (4) from source to drain, the drain current is

explicitly given by

where Vth is the same as t or kT/q.

In the original modeling of reference 5, the two gates were
considered to be asymmetric and thus to account for that an
ideality factor of n1 was used. For the case of the FinFET the
n1 term can be reduced to equation (3) as shown below.

where qS and qD are the normalized charge at the source and

drain respectively. The author has modified equation (10) of
reference 5 to get the analytical solution for qI. Equation 6
below is an analytical solution for qI.

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22nd Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference, May 2004

Rahman, M

n V VT

q I = n1 ln 1 G
Vch
n1

(6)

In order to solve for the qS and qD , the Vch has to be replaced

by the source and the drain voltage respectively. VT is the
threshold voltage, which is given by equation (7) below.

VT = 2VFB

C + C OX
+ 2B + qN A t si si
C si COX

(7)

In equation (7) t Si is the width of the Fin and B is the fermi

potential. It can be seen that the COX and CSI are in series.
2.2 Design Theory and Dimensions:
Fin Height [1]:
The height (h) of the FIN represents the channel width of a
single-fin transistor as illustrated in figure 2. The current IDS
for conventional and FinFET transistor technologies (IDS = oncurrent per unit channel width) is proportional to the channel
width as shown in equation 5. Thus for a single-fin FinFET
would be proportional to
IDS (2 x h)+ WFIN ( is the sign of proportionality)
(10)
Where h is the height of the fin and the width of the side
channels. If more fins are placed the right side of equation has
to be multiplies by the number of FINs. The equation becomes
IDS [(2 x h)] x nfins (nfins is the number of Fins) + nfin.WFIN
(11)
From the above equation it can be seen that increasing the
number of FINs can increase the drive current.
If multiple FINs are used, the following conditions has to be
used:
2

X h pitch

This is a small sub section, which talks about the design rules
of the FinFET design. The design rule details are presented in
reference 1. In this section the design rules are summarized
from reference 1.
Fin Thickness [1]:
As channel length decreases, fin thickness and oxide thickness
must be decreased to maintain gate control, in accordance with
scaling rules based on natural length [1] the following design
rule will have be followed.
0.7 x Length of Fin under Gate Fin Thickness

(8)

0.3 x Fin Thickness Thickness of Gate Oxide (9)

Where pitch is the horizontal gap between two fins.
Source/Drain Resistance:
Source/Drain extension resistance is a significant component
of parasitic series resistance. The cross sectional area of the
source/drain extensions is determined by the FIN thickness
[1]. Common methods of reducing source/drain series
resistance is by raising the S/D, ex-situ doping of fin area
excluding the area under the gate and silicidation of
source/drain contact.

3. Designs and Fabrication:

FinFETs of various geometries were designed. The smallest

device had a Fin Width of 0.5um and Gate Width of 05um.
FinFETs of other geometries were also included in the mask.
FETs with multiple fins were also included. Below are
fabrication process steps listed in sequence starting from Level
1 the Alignment Level.
1.Starting Substrate: 100 P-type silicon wafer with BOX
thickness of 2300 and Silicon thickness of 3750.

(12)

3.Alignment marks were patterned, and finally etching the

3750A silicon using reactive ion etching transferred the image
and the 2300A BOX using buffered oxide etching.

2. Lithography Level 1: Alignment Marks Patterning.

loading effect, the etch time was very different from the target
etch time.
6. Resist Ash in Branson Asher.

4. Lithography Level 2: Source/Drain FIN Patterning.

5. After the Level 2 was patterned, the silicon Fin, source and
drain, masked by OiR620 positive photoresist were etched
down to BOX, using DytTech Quad Reactive Ion Etching. In
order to etch the silicon completely in the unmasked area, the
following etch recipe had to be used.

7. After the Resist ash was done, a sacrificial SiO 2 of thickness

one 160Angstrom was grown. The Sacrificial Oxide was then
etched away using Hydrofluoric Acid Chemistry. This step
was done for two reasons. Firstly for rounding the corners for
the Fin/Fins so that current crowding or spreading resistance
effects can be prevented. The next reason was to prepare the
surface for the gate oxide.

RF Forward: 185Watts
Pressure: 17mTorr
SF6: 17SCCMs
CHF3: 14SCCMs
Etch Time: 14.5 Minutes.

8. Gate oxide of 580Angstrom was grown using the Bruce Dry

Oxide Furnace. For the prevention of Fixed Charges, nitrogen
annealing was done after growth step.

Different pattern density mask was used while doing the

process development of this recipe, but due to severe micro

9. Poly Silicon of thickness 2300Angstrom was deposited

using Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition.

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Rahman, M

10. Level 3 Lithography: Gate Patterning

22nd Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference, May 2004

showed very poor performance. Figure 4 below shows the

drain family of curves for one of the FinFETs.

11. After the gate was patterned, the polysilicon in the

unmasked area was etched using the Dry Tech Quad Reactive
Ion Etcher Etcher. The etch recipe was as follows:
RF Forward Power: 185Watts
SF6: 30 SCCMs
CHF3: 30 SCCMs
Pressure: 43mTorr
Etch Time: 2 minute 10 seconds.
12. Resist Ashing in Branson Asher was done using oxygen
plasma.
13. Ion Implantation for Self-Aligned Source/Drain and Gate:
Ion-Implant of phosphorus using the Varian 350D ionimplanter was done to introduce dopants into the polysilicon
gate and source/drain. In order, to prevent channeling and
implant damage the implant in the Source/Drain are was done
through the 580Angstrom dry oxide. The implant conditions
were as follows:
Implant Specie: P31
Implant Energy: 60KeV
Implant Dose: 1 x 1015/cm2

Figure4: Drain Family of Curve for a NFET FinFET.

A proper scrutiny of figure 4 shows that, current flows only
had very high Vds. The current flow decreases as the gate bias
is increased. All the other transistors showed similar
performance. In order to further investigate the results, we
took high magnification scanning electron micrographs of the
devices. Figure 5 shows the SEM micrographs:

14. Activation of the Dopant Ions.

Annealing the wafer at 10000 C for 15minutes in the furnace
activated dopant ions.
15. Oxide Etch:
Oxide in the Source/Drain area etched using Hydrofluoric
Acid base etchant.
16.Aluminum Deposition:
The source/drain contact area was slightly bigger than the
probe contact are. Thus a separate contact mask was not used.
To make an ohmic contact with the sour/drain 2000 Angstrom
of aluminum was deposited by evaporation using the CVC
evaporator. The base pressure of the evaporation process was
4.2 x 10-6 Torr.

Figure 5a: FinFET of 0.5 gate length and 4um Fin.

17. Level 4 Lithography: Metal Patterning:

Aluminum in the Source/Drain and Polysilicon contact area
were masked using photoresist.
18. Aluminum Etch:
Wet Aluminum Etch was done in the unmasked areas using
phosphoric acid based chemistry. The etch time was
47seconds, which includes a 100% over etch.
19: Sintering:
To make the contact ohmic, the wafer was sintered in the
furnace at 4500C in Forming Gas ambient.
4. Electrical Results and Analysis:
Electrical tests were done using the Keithly 8200
Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer. The electrical results

Figure 5b: FinFET of 0.5 gate length and 0.8um Fin

Investigation of the electrical results show that, there were
large pits and holes in the silicon fin and the source drain
areas. This pit and holes came from the second level etch, that
is the etch of the Source/Drain and Fin as described in the
process flow. The pits and the holes pattern got transferred in
the other levels. Another FinFET projected was conducted
with my project [6], which used low temperature oxide as a
hard mask to etch the silicon Fin. A SEM micrograph of the
other project using LTO as a hard mask after the Source/Drain
and Fin etch is shown in figure 6.

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Rahman, M

22nd Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference, May 2004

7.References:
[1] , Hari Ananthan ,FinFET Current Research Issues,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
[2]D.J Frank, S.E. Laux, and M. V. Fischetti, Monte Carlo
Simulation of 30nm dual Gate MOSFET: how short can Si
go? in IEDM Tech. Dig., 1992, pp 553-556
[3]S.Wolf & R.N.Tauber, Silicon Epitaxial Film Growth and
Silicon on Insulator, Volume 1, Silicon Processing for VLSI
Era,2001
Figure 6: 0.5um FinFET reference [6]

[4] Mohamed Rahman & S.Rommel, Discussion Note

Figure 7 below show the electrical results of the second

groups device:

[5] A Framework for Generic Physics Based Double-Gate

MOSFET Modeling, Mansun Chan 1, Yuan Taur , ChungHsun Lin , Jin He, Ali M. Niknejad and Chenming Hu
[6] Process Flow and Electrical Results, Branislav Curanovic,

Figure 7: Electrical Result of FinFET [6]

After investigating and analyzing the results we can say that
photo resist alone is not a sufficient etch mask.The other
groups FinFET works because it is protected by a separate
hard etch mask. The Roughness caused holes and voids to be
formed through the box. The roughness also transferred to the
Polysilicon Gate. As a result, the fin was highly resistive and
the metal short-circuited with the silicon under the BOX. This
caused
Current Flow from under the Box at high Vds.
Further Field Effect due to increasing Vgs, reduced the current
flowing under the gate.
5.Conclusion:
Oir620 Resist is not sufficient to mask the silicon etch due to
its poor selectivity. This results in highly resistive Fin. We
learned that a hard mask like LTO or silicon nitride has to be
used for the silicon fin Etch.
6. Acknowledgements:
Santosh Kurinec
Branislav Curanovic
Sean Rommel
Yaser Alshehri
Jay Cabacungan
Charles Gruener
Scott Blondell
Bruce Tolleson
Entire SMFL Staff

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