Fabrication of polysilicon gated-nanowires and their application for pA precision current measurements

This paper reports on the fabrication and use of CMOS-compatible nanograin n-doped polysilicon gated-nanowires (polySiNW) for application in precise current measurements with less-than 1 pA resolution. A technological process is proposed to co-fabricate polySiNWs and n-channel MOSFETs. The investigation of the V-shape characteristic of I/sub D/-V/sub G/ extracted from fabricated polySiNWs is presented. A new bias scheme in order to use the nanowires as low current sensors is given. Finally, the effect of temperature on the conduction of polySiNWs is shown.