This paper reviews the current critical issues regarding the device design of strained-Si MOSFETs and demonstrates that strained-Si-on-insulator (strained-SOI) structures can effectively solve these problems. The advantages, characteristics and challenges of strained-SOI CMOS technology are presented, on the basis of our recent results. Furthermore, a future possible direction of channel engineering using strained-Si/SiGe structures, into the deep sub-100 nm regime, is addressed.
We fabricate p- and n-channel Si tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) with an epitaxially grown tunnel junction. In a novel source/drain-first and tunnel-junction-last fabrication process, a thin epitaxial undoped Si channel (epichannel) is deposited on a preferentially fabricated p- or n-type source area. The epichannel sandwiched by a gate insulator and a highly doped source well acts as a parallel-plate tunnel capacitor, which effectively multiplies drain current with an enlarged tunnel area. On the basis of its simple structure and easy fabrication, symmetric n- and p-transistor and complementary metal oxide semiconductor inverter operations were successfully demonstrated.
Advantages of strained-SOI CMOS and the impact on circuit performance are presented from the viewpoint of ring oscillator speed, floating body effects, threshold voltage control and gate leakage reduction. Circuit performance enhancement of about 1.7 times over conventional SOI CMOS is verified experimentally at 0.95/spl mu/m gate lengths and theoretically expected even at gate lengths of 50nm.
The performance of parallel electric field tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), in which band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) was initiated in-line to the gate electric field, was evaluated. The TFET was fabricated by inserting a parallel-plate tunnel capacitor between heavily doped source wells and gate insulators. Analysis using a distributed-element circuit model indicated there should be a limit of the drain current caused by the self-voltage-drop effect in the ultrathin channel layer. We also propose a scheme to improve the performance of the TFETs by modification of the gate and channel configurations.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is often observed in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and it is known that the presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus leads to the aggravation of NAFLD. The aim of this study was to compare the possible effects of three kinds of oral hypoglycemic agents on NAFLD in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus.We carried out a prospective clinical trial (a randomized and open-label study) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and NAFLD. A total of 98 patients were randomly allocated either to the dapagliflozin (n = 32), pioglitazone (n = 33) or glimepiride (n = 33) group, and the patients took these drugs for 28 weeks. The primary end-point was the change of the liver-to-spleen ratio on abdominal computed tomography.There was no difference in baseline clinical characteristics among the three groups. Dapagliflozin, pioglitazone and glimepiride ameliorated hyperglycemia similarly. Bodyweight and visceral fat area were significantly decreased only in the dapagliflozin group. Serum adiponectin levels were markedly increased in the pioglitazone group compared with the other two groups. Dapagliflozin and pioglitazone, but not glimepiride, significantly increased the liver-to-spleen ratio, and the effects of dapagliflozin and pioglitazone on the liver-to-spleen ratio were comparable.The present study showed that the decrease of visceral fat area and the increase of adiponectin level contributed to the improvement of NAFLD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, dapagliflozin and pioglitazone exerted equivalent beneficial effects on NAFLD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, although it seemed that these two drugs had different mechanisms of action.
Technologies for narrow-channel effect suppression in photodiodes (PDs) and vertical CCDs (V-CCDs) and for smear reduction in PDs have been developed in order to improve dynamic range in small pixel interline-transfer CCD (IT-CCD) image sensors. The new technologies have been applied to a progressive-scan IT-CCD image sensor with 5 /spl mu/m square pixels and have (1) increased the charge handling capability of its V-CCDs to 4500 electrons/V; (2) improved its smear value to -95 dB; and (3) increased the saturation charge of its PDs to 2.3/spl times/10/sup 4/ electrons.
