Introduction

The single[1] and double[2] gate thin-body transistors are promising device designs for the 5-50nm gate-length regime. One of their major challenges is the large series resistance of the thin body layer. In this paper we present a method for reducing this resistance with the use of dual low-barrier silicide source/drains: PtSi for PMOS, and ErSi1.7 for NMOS, Fig. 1. In previous studies, bulk-Si silicide source/drain MOSFETs[3] have exhibited large leakage currents. Our use of a thin body reduces leakage by orders of magnitude. This symbiotic relationship between leakage suppression by the thin-body structure and the low series resistance of the silicide source/drain structure results in a promising device technology that can be scaled down to 15nm gate-length. It also provides an alternative to the elevated source/drain approach as a general method for reducing series resistance of thin-body designs.