Operation of a Novel Device With Suspended Nanowire Channels

We investigate the operation of a new device featuring a side-gate scheme and suspended poly-Si nanowire (NW) channels. The fabrication adopted a sidewall-spacer-etching technique to form the poly-Si NW channels. The NW channels were further suspended using a simple wet-etching step. An interesting hysteresis phenomenon is observed in the I-V characteristics. In addition, a steep subthreshold swing (< 60 mV/dec) is also observed in the transfer curves. A scenario is proposed to explain the operation of such a device.