This work investigates localized electrothermal annealing (ETA) with extremely low power consumption. The proposed method utilizes, for the first time, tunneling-current-induced Joule heat in a p-i-n diode, consisting of p-type, intrinsic, and n-type semiconductors. The consumed power used for dopant control is the lowest value ever reported. A metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) composed of a p-i-n silicon nanowire, which is a substructure of a tunneling FET (TFET), was fabricated and utilized as a test platform to examine the annealing behaviors. A more than 2-fold increase in the on-state (ION) current was achieved using the ETA. Simulations are conducted to investigate the location of the hot spot and how its change in heat profile activates the dopants.
Keywords: Joule heat; annealing; dopant activation; dopant control; heat treatment; nanowire; p-i-n diode; tunneling field-effect transistor.