SI NANOWIRES

tien

Scaling Silicon Devices

Towards the Atomic Scale
John Alcock (00517801)
Sridhar Bulusu (00508188)
Supplementary File
Atharva Inamdar (00512270)
Vishanth Narayan (00515089)
Shashwat Sapre (00512655)
Ali Shad (00507167)
Krishna White (00512908)

Supervisor: Dr Z. Durrani

2µm
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Contents

1 Introduction 3
2 Group Management 3
3 Meetings Minutes 5
4 Treasury Report 13
5 Individual Contributions 14
5.1 Atharva Inamdar 14
5.2 Vishanth Narayan 15
5.3 Ali Shad 16
5.4 John Alcock 17
5.5 Sridhar Bulusu 18
5.6 Shashwat Sapre 19
5.7 Krishna White 20
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1. Introduction

This supplementary file should be regarded as complimentary to the formal report. This file provides
notes on the project as a whole, describing the management techniques implemented and individual
logs of the tasks conducted.

2. Group Management

Our very first meeting as a group was held on 27 th October 2008, a week after the formation of our
groups. As we were quite new to this topic, this meeting was more focused on an introduction to the
project and the individual roles of the group members. In this meeting, we decided on a group
management committee. Atharva Inamdar and Vishanth Narayan were elected as joint group leaders.
Work pairs were also decided upon to make task allocations easier in the future and to facilitate their
completion:

Ali Shad and Vishanth Narayan

John Alcock and Krishna White
Atharva Inamdar, Shashwat Sapre and Sridhar Bulusu

After our initial meeting with our group supervisor, Dr Durrani, in the second week we were able to get
a more comprehensive idea of what was expected of us in the project. Following this, we created a
general group schedule to enable us to stay on track and not lag behind. A Gantt chart is shown
below with mutually agreed timelines and deadlines. However, due to a minor delay in acquiring the
research material required, the research stage was pushed back resulting in a slightly late final
compilation of the report.

Group meetings were held regularly, either once a week or once a fortnight. Every pair kept a good
pace individually alongside other coursework deadlines and regular correspondence was maintained
either via emails or informal meetings to update the group on progress. Furthermore, a regular check
was kept on the deadlines, and the pace of work was adjusted accordingly.

During the week of 24th November 2008, following advice from Dr Durrani, we decided to base our
report on existing applications of SiNWs, and current research into them. Sridhar initially expressed a
desire to write up on a quantum application of Silicon Nanowires (SiNWs), but this idea was later
dropped due to the fact that very few materials were available on this topic. Each pair was allocated
the research and write-up of two distinct applications of SiNWs. As a 30 page limit was also an issue
to consider, the pairs were to write up no more than 8-9 pages. This will be discussed in more detail in
the „Meeting Minutes‟ section that follows.

The project was planned in the very early stages with each task being scheduled for certain periods of
time. The Gantt chart below shows the planned schedule and the actual timeline of events.
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3. Meeting Minutes

The following pages show the minutes taken during our group meetings, both individually and with our
supervisor; they include what was discussed and any actions to be taken until next meeting.
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MEETING MINUTES 1

Date/Time: Monday, 27 October 2008

Location: EEE Café
Attendees: Atharva Inamdar (AI); Vishanth Narayan (VN); Ali Shad (AS); John Alcock (JA);
Shashwat Sapre (SS); Sridhar Bulusu (SB); Krishna White (KW)
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Introduction to the chosen Project

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Group managers chosen: Atharva Inamdar & Vishanth Narayan

2 Project requirements AI, VN

20 page technical report
o 25-26 pages for body of the report (Technical content)
Layout
o Cover page with Abstract
o Introduction
o Carbon nanowires background knowledge
o Why move from C to Si NW?
o Synthesis of SiNW
o Advantages/disadvantages
o Possible solutions and commercial viability
o Summary & Conclusion
o Reference list (atleast 50)
3 Quick introduction to topic SB
Current technology –Carbon Nanotubes
o Uses and limitation
SiNWs have wide range of applications; ranging from Biological
devices to micro-engineering and physics (Quantum)
applications
SiNW have quite different properties than Carbon Nanotubes
including advantages of even smaller scales, electrical
properties and quantum mechanical effects.

4 Schedule meeting with Dr Durrani for official brief: 29th Oct 2008 VN
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MEETING MINUTES 2

Date/Time: Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Location: EEE 704
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW; Dr Durrani
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Background research materials, our very first research paper summary as a
group

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Several resources were provided by Dr Durrani Dr Durrani
Book – Fundamentals of Medern VLSI Devices (Taur, Chapters
3 & 4)
Long/Short Channel MOSFETS and MOSFET scaling and
Nanoscilicon (Vijay Kumar Ch 5-6)
Dr Charles Lieber and his research papers

2 Read Ch 5 (Silicon Nanowires & Nanowire Heterostructures) of All

Nanosilicon collectively and write summaries on individual sections.

Individual sections to read:

5.2.1 + 5.2.2 KW; JA

5.2.3 + 5.2.4 SS; SB; AI
5.2.5 + 5.3.3 AS; VN
Deadline for summaries: 7th Nov 2008

3 Next meeting: 5th Nov 2008

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MEETING MINUTES 3

Date/Time: Wednesday, 05 November 2008

Location: EEE Comp Labs 304
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Progress check on summary draft of Nanosilicon book (Ch 5)

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Report on incomplete initial research due to other imminent deadlines
2 Deadline of research extended as it was clear that the material was
beyond our syllabus. The technical papers were also difficult to read in
the beginning. Deadline to send summaries to AI extended to 11th Nov
08

3 Organise meeting with Dr Durrani for 12th Nov 08 VN

Agenda:
Discuss Ch 5 summary and gain some comments and further tips on
reading technical papers and extracting relevant information.
4 Next meeting: 12th Nov 08
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MEETING MINUTES 4

Date/Time: Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Location: EEE 704
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW; Dr Durrani
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Comments on practice summary and guidelines for report writing

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Feedback on summary
No major negative criticism
2 Our decided report structure put forward to Dr Durrani.
Report writing Guidelines given to us
Focus on various applications/devices of SiNW
Five different applications to be discussed
Minimum 50 references

Structure for individual sections on each application:

Focus on devices manufactured from SiNW
o Progress on device so far
Manufacturing process of SiNW and the device
Properties of device including electrical characteristics e.g I-V
plots
Measurement of device. Both physical and electrical
measurements
Maximum section length five pages

3 SB expressed interest in studying a Quantum application of SiNW

Applications decided:
SiNW FETs JA; KW
Nonvolatile memory and circuits AS
Quantum Device SB

Bio-sensors
o DNA detection VN

o Cancerous cell detection SS; AI

o Detection of biomarkers in live cells SS; AI

4 Next meeting: 28th Nov 08 (two weeks)

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MEETING MINUTES 5

Date/Time: Friday, 28 November 2008

Location: EEE Comp Labs
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Reminder of deadlines for written report. Task allocation revision

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Project allocations were revised after previous meeting due to reports
of some applications being too similar.
Revised allocations were sent out by email after couple of days of
previous meeting and are as follows:
Nonvolatile memory from Molecule-Gated Nanowires AS
Direct Ultrasensitive electrical detection of DNA & DNA VN
sequence variations using nanowire nanosensors
Field Effect Transistors JA; KW

Lithium batteries with SiNW anodes AI

Solar cells from SiNW SS; SB

2 Sridhar was unable to find sufficient information on Quantum

applications of SiNWs thus was allocated Solar Cells from SiNW with
Shashwat.

3 Completed write up of each application was expected by 12 th Jan 09

(first day of Spring term).
This allows for extra time to compile the report with correct formatting,
editing and writing an Abstract, Introduction and a Conclusion.
4 Website submission with report. AS
Website content to be the same as the report for most of the sections
and thus deadline set as 18th Jan 09. Time allowed for design.
5 AI; SS; SB expressed interest for giving the presentation (23 rd Feb 09) AI; SS; SB
To be discussed in detail towards the end of the report writing
6 Next meeting: 14th Jan 09 (with Dr Durrani)
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MEETING MINUTES 6

Date/Time: Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Location: EEE Comp Labs
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Feedback on first draft of written report

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Feedback from Dr Durrani on report
Add a separate manufacturing section compiled (& edited) from AS
all the manufacturing subsections of each application
Add subsection on Plasma-enhanced Chemical Vapour VN
Deposition (PECVD) synthesis method of SiNW
Introduction (AI) and Conclusion (SS) to be added (1page AI; SS
each)
2 All of above to be sent to John by 26th Jan 09 for final compilation and JA
editing. John to also check general grammar, layout and flow of report.

Final deadline for compiled report: 29th Jan 09.

3 Next meeting on 29th Jan 09 to discuss the final compiled draft.

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MEETING MINUTES 7

Date/Time: Thursday, 29 January 2009

Location: EEE Comp Labs
Attendees: AI; VN; AS; JA; SS; SB; KW
Absent: [none]
Subject matter: Progress report

Discussion/Action Point Active Person

1 Report draft proof-read by all members
2 Website was discussed.
Features of the website and any ideas/suggestions for new
features or changes
Group Photo (to be taken on 5th Feb 09)
3 Reminder: Deadline 12th Feb 09
Reminder: Supplementary file containing management report and All
individual contributions.
4 Meeting Minutes to be typed up VN; AI; SS
Individual contributions page: 3rd Feb 09 All
Complete building website AS

5 No more formal meeting to be conducted. All communications on

individual progress to be conducted by email and/or informal meetings
outside college hours.

Good Luck!
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4. Treasury Report

For this research project our group was allocated a budget of £50 for any expenses incurred. This
included printing of research material, copies of the main report and this supplementary file and any
stationary used.

The following balance sheet shows the total costs incurred in completing this research project.

Quantity Cost (£)

Research Report (30 Pages) 2 £11.00

Supplementary file (20 Pages) 1 £5.50
Total Cost: £16.50

Project Budget: £50.00

Expenses: £16.50

Budget Remaining: £33.50

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5. Individual Contributions

This section contains notes on contributions made by each member of the team to the project. It
highlights their responsibilities and the impact on this research project as a whole.

5.1 Atharva Inamdar

For this research project, I had taken on one of the most important role of a project manager. I was
responsible for project planning including time management. During the first week of the project
initialisation, I drew a Gantt chart planning all or most of the major tasks at hand. This is shown as
black baseline bars on the Gantt chart in this supplementary file. I used a professional package
(Microsoft Project) to plan the project to allow maximum accuracy and resource allocations based on
the typical working patterns of students. Other management tasks included assigning deliverables to
team members appropriately and accurately.

I believe communication within the team is very important so I made sure everyone was
communicating regularly on their progress and notifying me or Dr Durrani of any questions that were
raised. The primary form of communication was group meetings and emails. However, since all of
team are good friends it meant that informal meetings would also raise some points regarding certain
aspects of the project.

My second main responsibility was to research and write a whole section on a unique application of
SiNWs. I chose to research use of SiNWs in anodes for lithium batteries. A practice of researching
and reading technical papers provided by Dr. Durrani, aided in better understanding complex papers.
Research was carried out using online services such as ISI Web of Knowledge, MetaLib, online
catalogues of IEEE Xplore, American Chemical Society and Nature archives. It should be noted that
my research in this field included manufacture of SiNWs using CVD-VLS which is included in a
separate section in the main report. This research and write-up of individual sections was originally
scheduled to be completed during the Christmas break, however this was delayed and thus the rest of
the tasks were aligned accordingly.

My other responsibilities included helping with main report compilation and compiling and editing this
supplementary file. I provided input on the formatting of the report and the website. I was also
responsible for communications with Dr Durrani. I have chosen to present this project along with a few
others. This responsibility includes creating the presentation and will also include the time
management and task assignment.

I wholly contributed a section titled “Lithium batteries with silicon nanowire anodes”, which I believe
has made a significant contribution to the research report. Through my role as a project manager, I
ensured the smooth running of the team including keeping everyone on track for the final deadline.
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5.2 Vishanth Narayan

My main responsibility for the 2008/2009 2 nd year group project on Silicon Nanowires, as the group
leader included the following:

1. Assigning of first practice paper from Nanosilicon – Vijay Kumar

2. Summary of a section of Chapter 5, and involved briefly in the re-compiling of the
draft
3. Organising group meeting, those among ourselves and those with Dr Durrani when
we needed feedbacks on our drafts, or clarifications.
4. Assigning of initial research papers with Atharva to group, providing a starting point
for research as well as allocating the device to be studied.
5. Write-up on Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and Plasma-enhanced Chemical
Vapor deposition (PECVD) synthesis process in the “Manufacturing” section of the
report.
6. Write-up on the fabrication, sensing mechanism and characteristics (explained with
graphs) of Nanosensor devices used in the detection of DNA and DNA sequence
variation.
7. Recording of minutes in certain meetings and the final compilation of these minutes
for the supplementary file.

I used a general method to research into papers that Dr Durrani recommended. The initial paper was
first browsed through. Interesting facts were then noted down, and so were their references. These
references then led to more articles that I used in my research. Most of the articles I used were
obtained either from Metalib or the Publications page of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Since we are all friends, the overall communication of the group was very good. Regular meetings
were held throughout the autumn term as and when we felt necessary. Other than that, we kept in
touch via email over the Christmas break to organise our work in pairs. I also used Skype to complete
my work with Ali, to make sure our references did not overlap and to check on each other‟s progress.

Silicon nanowire devices are the future of microelectronics and miniaturised devices, and the fact that
it is so relevant in technology today made it a very interesting subject for me. I also feel that this
increased my general knowledge in FETs, which I found was very helpful in understanding my 2 nd
year devices course. Overall, I believe that this project broadened my perspective on nanotechnology
and its definitive place in the future.
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5.3 Ali Shad

For this group project I designed and set up the website, I designed and helped edit the main report, I
wrote a section within the report („Nonvolatile Memory using Molecule-Gated Nanowires‟), and I
compiled the „Silicon Nanowire Synthesis‟ together.

I was previously allocated to be partnered with Vishanth and we were subsequently given two
research papers to discuss for the report. Between us we chose the research paper that we
personally liked to write about so I chose the paper about applications within nonvolatile memory. I
sifted through many papers to gain background knowledge of some of the technologies being
investigated and then focussed on the important papers when writing my report entitled „Nonvolatile
Memory using Molecule-Gated Nanowires‟. I found it important to centre the report on the future uses
of the technology which I managed to link to Moore‟s Law and the continuing trend for smaller and
smaller devices.

Once we compiled all the individual reports together we noticed that there was constant overlapping
as everybody was describing the fabrication process of silicon nanowires. It was decided that a
section after the introduction of the main report should be added entitled „Silicon Nanowire Synthesis‟.
I was given the responsibility of collecting the information on fabrication from each individual report
and compiling it in a clear and coherent manner to go under the synthesis section; this also included
my write up on the laser assisted catalytic growth method.

I also nominated myself for the role of designing the website as I have lots of previous experience in
this field. I decided to build the website using a content management system called Joomla! with
which I had learnt how to use over the summer. It was quite a lengthy process to set up the website
and enter the relevant information onto it, however, I am very happy with the outcome and the many
hours spent have paid off. I tried to keep the website as simple as possible with focus on ease of use
whilst maintaining full functionality.

Finally I helped with the edit of the main report. I am quite a neat and creative person so I insisted that
I help edit as I am also quite pedantic with getting things perfect. For this I designed the front page
and the layout scheme, which tied in with the website structure, and also helped John and Shashwat
with tying all the sections together and keeping references and captions consistent.

I feel that communication within the group was good and everyone helped out with the report. Our
group was such that we helped each other out if we had any problems and we had good teamwork
and leadership which carried us through to the completion of the report.
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5.4 John Alcock

My primary role in the group project was to research silicon nanowire-based transistors, from their
inception to the current state of the art. I was also responsible for compilation of the final report drafts,
which involved drawing together the various sections written by the other team members and
ensuring consistency of style and referencing throughout.

My initial research into nanowire transistors came from a book recommended by our supervisor:
Nanosilicon, by Vijay Kumar. I was required to write a brief summary of one of its chapters, which
gave an overview of how exactly silicon nanowires were used in this application. From this point I had
a good idea of what kind of paper was required, and used Google Scholar to perform a first phase of
research. However, I quickly realised that it was inadequate for in-depth exploration of the topic, and
turned to Metalib and individual journal websites to obtain the relevant information. I used few books
in my research – I found that although they provided useful background reading, a topic such as
nanotechnology moves extremely quickly and so they were inevitably out of date. The best
information was provided by specialist journals such as Nanotechnology.

Once I had a large selection of papers, I drew up a plan of how my report was to be structured. This
allowed me to see roughly where each paper fit in, as well as where more research was needed.
From this, I was able to write about the history, fabrication process and current state of the art of
nanowire transistors. This was then sent to a team leader.

I later received back a rough draft of the full final report, with sections from most team members
included. We had earlier taken the decision to consolidate all information about the manufacture of
devices near the start of the document in order to minimise duplication across sections. My first step
was therefore to read it in full and ensure that this had been successfully achieved before addressing
any other duplication. After this, I renumbered all the document references, figures and tables in a
consistent style, breaking them down by section where necessary. It was also important to contact
other team members where I felt that part of their report needed further explanation, and to request
updated copies of their sections. In addition, the overall aesthetics of the report had to be addressed:
font sizes and colours varied across reports, and these were edited for a consistent look.

Overall, I felt that the team worked well. We held regular meetings in which we could raise any issues
that we had encountered. These were discussed before a solution was arrived at. The division of work
struck a good balance: it allowed us to perform in-depth research without overstretching ourselves.
Communication within the team was also good, with email messages being used effectively to inform
members of new developments.
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5.5 Sridhar Bulusu

My primary role was to research and write a section about the physics and characteristics of silicon
nanowires for solar energy harvesting. Moreover I am going to contribute more to the project by giving
the presentation along with Shashwat Sapre. I also helped in recording the minutes for meetings.

Initially, each group member had to read a section from the book Nanosilicon by Vijay Kumar and
write a summary. We then got split in small groups and I had to write about the physics and
characteristics of silicon nanowires for solar energy harvesting. The reference list of the book
Nanosilicon gave me a good starting point and I mainly used “Metalib” from the digital library of the
Imperial College Library to search for a good review paper regarding my topic. Photovoltaic and
photoelectrochemical conversion of solar energy by Gratzel, M and Nanorods and nanotubes for
Solar Cells by Kislyuk, V.V. and Dimitriev, O.P. provided a good starting point. The former briefly
discussed the physics of planar solar cells and from the latter I found a paper which analysed the
absorptance of silicon nanowire arrays in the reference list. Then I found papers which compared the
characteristics of planar solar cells to cells using silicon nanowires and which explained the
characteristics of particular silicon nanowires for photovoltaics.

Right now I am beginning to prepare for the presentation, which I am going to hold with Shashwat by
reading through the sections of other people and some of the relevant papers in order to understand
it.

All in all, I found that we worked well as a team. Splitting the work enabled each group member to do
detailed research and write their section without any complications. We held regular meetings within
our group in order to resolve issues.
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5.6 Shashwat Sapre

My responsibilities for the EE2 Group Project on Silicon Nanowires (SiNW): Scaling Silicon Devices
Towards the Atomic Scale were primarily to write a section on the application of SiNWs in solar cells
with Sridhar Bulusu and design and present the overall report on the 23 rd February. Additionally, I also
wrote the two sections on the synthesis of SiNWs (Vapor Liquid Solid Process & Chemical Etching),
took minutes of the meetings with our Supervisor Dr Durrani, and wrote the overall conclusion to the
report. Finally, I helped compile the report, editing the text and organising the references, and got the
report professionally printed and bound.

I was paired with Sridhar Bulusu, with whom I was assigned the task of researching and writing up the
application of SiNWs in Solar Cells. I realised that to write an effective section for the report, I needed
to first improve my background knowledge of the subject matter. This was done by reading
st
Nanosilicon by Vijay Kumar and revising the Devices lecture course taught in 1 year. Furthermore, I
spent considerable time gathering and reading papers based on Solar Applications of SiNWs found
via Metalib and the ISIWebofKnowledge. The papers found were interesting, with some being more
technical than others and containing challenging content, but gave me precious insight into the cutting
edge research done on SiNW solar cells. With these papers at our disposal, Sridhar and I made a
plan of our section and wrote it up individually.

Moreover, I also wrote two sections for the Synthesis of SiNWs which required further research and
brought together the final report, writing the overall conclusion of the report. I helped with the overall
compilation of the report, managing the references and acting as an editor, proofreading the report
and changing sentences to integrate the different sections. My other responsibilities included taking
minutes of the meetings with our supervisor Dr Durrani and managing the printing and binding of the
report.

Finally, I am responsible for the creation and presentation of the report on the 23th February as I am
very keen on oral presentations, having substantial experience from high school. This presentation
also compliments my humanities course “Communicating Science” giving me an opportunity to further
improve my communication skills.

Overall, I enjoyed working with the team. The individual members displayed strengths in different
areas and so we were able to combine this to form an efficient and dedicated unit. Intra-
communication was continuous and there was a fair distribution of tasks to ensure that no members
were overly burdened.
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5.7 Krishna White

I co-ordinated with John to produce SiNW FETs section (section 3 in the research report).
Specifically, I was responsible for sections 3.1.0 to 3.1.3 inclusive, which discuss characteristics of the
devices, whereas John focused on their manufacturing methods in section 3.0. We worked together
closely to ensure that we drew inference from the same research papers (taken from Metalib and
online journals such as Nature) such that John‟s sections on manufacture related to the specific
devices chosen and discussed by myself.

A piece of initial research conducted by myself into crossed-nanowire architecture was based heavily
on Nanosilicon, by Vijay Kumar (a text recommended by our project supervisor). This paved the way
for further research into the area by another group member, resulting in section 4.2 of the project on
Crossed Nanowire Nonvolatile Devices. A section of this initial research also found its way into the
section on FET manufacturing methods, regarding the possibility of electronic circuits on physically
flexible substrates.

My final contribution to the project was the second proofreading of the completed report, making
upwards of forty changes to the project regarding improved readability and relocation of
inappropriately placed figures.

The team functioned well as a whole, with regular communication to ensure that individual issues
were swiftly resolved. Group task allocation was clearly set forward in several emails and ensured a
fair distribution of the project workload. Although I consider myself to be quite weak in the area of
electronic devices, I found the project very interesting from an applications standpoint – I perhaps
might have been better suited to a section other than device characteristics, which I found to be
extremely technical, nevertheless the group, and John in particular were helpful in aiding my
understanding of some of the issues.