A metal insulator tunnel transistor with 16 nm channel length

A nanometer transistor, metal/insulator tunnel transistor (MITT), which consists of only metal and insulator is experimentally studied. In the MITT, the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling currents through an insulator in lateral metal/insulator/metal structure are controlled by changing a voltage at a gate electrode upon the middle insulator, due to variation of tunnel-barrier thickness at the insulator. It is demonstrated that the MITT with 16 nm channel length fabricated by conventional photolithography can operate similarly to the conventional metal/oxide/semiconductor field-effect transistor with on/off ratio of current larger than 10(5). The result indicates that the MITT is a promising candidate for future switching transistors in ultralarge scale integrated circuits. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04921-9].