Processing issues of Germanium MOS devices on silicon substrates

As conventional scaling approaches its limits, novel materials are increasingly being explored for continuing the exponential growth predicted by Moore's law. Germanium and high K gate dielectrics are currently the subject of extensive study. This work is an initial report about the challenges and opportunities in the integration of compressively strained Germanium films and high k gate dielectrics onto conventional silicon substrates for faster MOS devices. A novel MOS device structure with a thin, meta-stable Ge film in the channel region and a high k gate dielectric material is explored for its thermodynamic instability.