Abstract
As device dimensions in integrated circuits (IC’s) shrink from the micrometer to sub-micrometer levels and below, quantum effects become more prominent. When these device dimensions go down to a few nanometers, quantum effects such as negative differential resistance device (NDRD) lead to interesting new device characteristics, which can be exploited to create extremely fast and compact circuits.The famous of NDRD is resonant tunneling diode (RTD). The RTD is a relatively young device. In 1970, Esaki and Tsu proposed that quantum mechanical phenomena should be observable in one-dimensional structures consisting of alternating single-crystalline layers with a period shorter (superlattices) than the electron mean free path. Recently, more and more research groups are working on the negative differential resistance devices (NDRDs) consisting of silicon dots embedded dielectric film matrix. And the mechanism of the negative differential resistance device is simulating to RTDs.In this thesis, we successfully implement RTD by silicon dots embedded silicon-rich silicon nitride matrix with PECVD. The performance (PVCR*Jp) of RTD is about 20. Discussing the silicon dot size depend on process parameters, and the mechanism of three phenomena of the electrical characterization of NDRDs:(1) Peak voltage will be decreased with increase in gas flow rate ratio ([SiH4]/[N2]).(2) The mean peak voltage of positive voltage shift was bigger than negative one.(3) Peak voltage range for positive peak voltage shift was bigger than for the negative one. (Negative one was more stable than positive one.)