A study on integration of molecular devices into CMOS compatible technology

Journal article, 2004

One main obstacle for measuring matter at the level of single molecule is the technology to make a bridge between molecules and microscopic structures (electrodes). A method of fabricating vertical silicon based nanogaps for contacting nanoscale elements has been developed and exploited to confront this problem. The developed technique is compatible to existing CMOS fabrication technology, reproducible and the gap size is easy to measure by simple capacitance measurements. Chemical treatment to attach any kind of nanoscale elements into the nanogap is an important issue. In this paper, we address problems related to surface leakage induced from different chemical processes. We have studied the effects of solvents on the surface leakage as well as surface leakage induced by nano components themselves. Surface leakage is a diffusion current process, and a set of parameters describing it has been used to compare the influence from different chemical processes. The study on solvents confirmed no predominant surface leakage induced by the presence of solvents like toluene and chloroform.