Etched ion tracks in silicon oxide and silicon oxynitride as charge injection or extraction channels for novel electronic structures

D. Fink*, A. V. Petrov, K. Hoppe, W. R. Fahrner, R. M. Papaleo, A. S. Berdinsky, A. Chandra, A. Chemseddine, A. Zrineh, A. Biswas, F. Faupel, L. T. Chadderton

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

    74 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The impact of swift heavy ions onto silicon oxide and silicon oxynitride on silicon creates etchable tracks in these insulators. After their etching and filling-up with highly resistive matter, these nanometric pores can be used as charge extraction or injection paths towards the conducting channel in the underlying silicon. In this way, a novel family of electronic structures has been realized. German patent pending (May 2003).1 The basic characteristics of these "TEMPOS" (=tunable electronic material with pores in oxide on silicon) structures are summarized. Their functionality is determined by the type of insulator, the etch track diameters and lengths, their areal densities, the type of conducting matter embedded therein, and of course by the underlying semiconductor and the contact geometry. Depending on the TEMPOS preparation recipe and working point, the structures may resemble gatable resistors, condensors, diodes, transistors, photocells, or sensors, and they are therefore rather universally applicable in electronics. TEMPOS structures are often sensitive to temperature, light, humidity and organic gases. Also light-emitting TEMPOS structures have been produced. About 37 TEMPOS-based circuits such as thermosensors, photosensors, humidity and alcohol sensors, amplifiers, frequency multipliers, amplitude modulators, oscillators, flip-flops and many others have already been designed and successfully tested. Sometimes TEMPOS-based circuits are more compact than conventional electronics.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)355-361
    Number of pages7
    JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
    Volume218
    Issue number1-4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2004
    EventProceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Radiation - Gramado, Brazil
    Duration: 31 Aug 20035 Sept 2003

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