"CHIPS: Intel tweaks high-k stack to get GaAs on silicon"

Intel demonstration silicon's successor--gallium arsenide on silicon compound semiconductor--but the technology still faces scaling hurdles. Look for Intel to start producing GaAs on Si chips by 2015. R.C.J.



Intel Labs says it has successfully fabricated an indium-gallium-arsenide field-effect transistor (FET) atop a silicon substrate by integrating a high-k gate stack. As in Intel's advanced silicon transistors, the high-k dielectric allowed the necessary thinning of the gate oxide without increasing gate leakage. The resultant compound semiconductor quantum-well FET demonstrated the high carrier velocity and high drive current that make InGaAs-on-Si attractive, but it must be scaled down in size before the technology can be commercialized.
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