Sub-half-micrometer width 2-D MESFET

Two-dimensional (2-D) MESFET's having sub-half-micron channel widths have been fabricated on double-/spl delta/-doped Al/sub 0.24/Ga/sub 0.76/As/In/sub 0.18/Ga/sub 0.82/As/GaAs heterostructures. The 2-D MESFET operates like a normal transistor at room temperature but uses very few electrons in the channel (about 500 at peak current and 5 at threshold). Also, the Narrow Channel Effect (NCE) and Drain-Induced Barrier Lowering (DIBL) (two effects which limit the minimum power operation in conventional devices) have been practically eliminated. The 0.4 micron wide device had an ON/OFF current ratio of 10/sup 5/, a peak transconductance of 100 mS/mm, a threshold voltage of 0.3 V, a saturation voltage of 0.2 V, and a subthreshold ideality factor of 1.1. The 2-D MESFET DCFL inverter had a switching voltage and noise margin of 0.35 V and 0.26 V, respectively, at 0.8 V supply. These room temperature results suggest that the 2-D MESFET is an excellent candidate for future low power digital electronics applications.