Electron mobility faster in GeSn than in Si or Ge

Electrons and other charge carriers can move faster in germanium tin than in silicon or germanium, enabling lower operation voltages and smaller footprints in vertical than in planar devices, say CEA-Leti researchers.

This proof-of-concept breakthrough means vertical transistors made of germanium tin are promising candidates for future low-power, high-performance chips and possibly quantum computers.

Germanium–tin transistors exhibit an electron mobility that is 2.5 times higher than a comparable transistor made of pure germanium.

GeSn is otherwise compatible with the existing CMOS process for chip fabrication. Because germanium and tin come from the same periodic table group as silicon, these transistors could be integrated directly into conventional silicon chips with existing production lines.

“In addition to their unprecedented electro-optical properties, a major advantage of GeSn binaries is also that they can be grown in the same epitaxy reactors as Si and SiGe alloys, enabling an all-group IV optoelectronic semiconductor platform that can be monolithically integrated on Si,” CEA-Leti reports.

The work also included scientists from ForschungsZentrum Jülich, Germany; the University of Leeds, United Kingdom; IHP- Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

View more : IGBT modules | LCD displays | electronic components