Silicon-on-insulator 'gate-all-around device'

Describes the process fabrication and the electrical characteristics of an SOI (silicon-on-insulator) MOSFET with gate oxide and a gate electrode not only on top of the active silicon film but also underneath it. Device fabrication is simple and necessitates only a single additional mask and etch step, compared to standard SOI processing. The device shows evidence of volume inversion (inversion is observed not only in surface channels, but through the entire thickness of the silicon film). Because of the presence of two channels and because of reduced carrier scattering within the bulk of the silicon film, the transconductance of the 'gate-all-around' device is more than twice that of a conventional SOI device, and its subthreshold slope is nearly 60 mV/decade at room temperature.<
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