SIGE HETEROSTRUCTURES FOR FET APPLICATIONS

The high room-temperature carrier mobilities which have recently been observed for both electrons and holes in Si/SiGe heterostructures and the possibility of further improvements offer the prospect of silicon- based field effect transistors (FETs) with performances matching those of bipolar transistors and ill-V modulation-doped FETs. In this artic le the electrical properties of this semiconductor system and the asso ciated materials challenges are discussed, and some of the more import ant device applications are reviewed.