PhD Defense of EL DIRANI Hassan

During the past 5 decades, Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology was the dominant fabrication method for semiconductor integrated circuits where Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) was and still is the central component. Nonetheless, the continued physical downscaling of these transistors in CMOS bulk technology is suffering limitations and has been stopped nowadays. Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FDSOI) technology appears as an excellent alternative that offers low-power consumption and improved electrostatic control for MOS transistors even in very advanced nodes (14 nm and 28 nm). However, the 60 mV/decade subthreshold slope of MOSFET is still unbreakable which limits the supply voltage reduction. This motivated us to explore alternative devices with sharp-switching: Z2-FET (Zero subthreshold slope and Zero impact ionization), Z2-FET DGP (with Dual Ground Planes) and Z3-FET (Zero front-gate). Thanks to their attractive characteristics (sharp switch, low leakage current, adjustable triggering voltage and high current ratio ION/IOFF), band-modulation devices are envisioned for multiple applications. In this work, we focused on Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) protection, capacitor-less Dynamic Random Access Memory and fast logic switch. The DC and transient operation mechanisms as well as the device performance are investigated in details with TCAD simulations and validated with systematic experimental results. A compact model of surface potential distribution for all Z-FET family devices is also given.