Semiconductor nanowires have aroused a lot of scientific interest and have been regarded as one of the most promising candidates that would make possible building blocks in future nanoscale devices and integrated circuits. Employing nanowire as metal‐oxide‐semiconductor field‐effect transistor (MOSFET) channel can enable a gate‐surrounding structure allowing an excellent electrostatic gate control over the channel for reducing the short‐channel effects. This chapter introduces the basic physics of semiconductor nanowires and addresses the problem of how to synthesize semiconductor nanowires with low‐cost, high‐efficiency and bottom‐up approaches. Effective integration of nanowires in modern complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) technology, specifically in MOSFET devices, and non‐volatile memory applications is also reviewed. By extending the nanowire MOSFET structure into a universal device architecture, various novel semiconductor materials can be investigated. Semiconductor nanowire MOSFETs have been proved to be a strong and useful platform to study the physical and electrical properties of the novel material. In this chapter, we will also review the investigations on topological insulator materials by employing the nanowire field‐effect transistor (FET) device structure.
Part of the book: Nanowires
The continuous complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) scaling is reaching fundamental limits imposed by the heat dissipation and short‐channel effects, which will finally stop the increase of integration density and the MOSFET performance predicted by Moore’s law. Molecular technology has been aggressively pursued for decades due to its potential impact on future micro‐/nanoelectronics. Molecules, especially redox‐active molecules, have become attractive due to their intrinsic redox behavior, which provides an excellent basis for low‐power, high‐density, and high‐reliability nonvolatile memory applications. This chapter briefly reviews the development of molecular electronics in the application of nonvolatile memory. From the mechanical motion of molecules in the Langmuir‐Blodgett film to new families of redox‐active molecules, memory devices involving hybrid molecular technology have shown advantageous potential in fast speed, low‐power, and high‐density nonvolatile memory and will lead to promising on‐chip memory as well as future portable electronics applications.
Part of the book: Redox