Proximity effect of electron beam lithography on single-electron transistors

A simple method, based on the proximity effect of electron beam lithography, alleviated by exposing various shapes in the pattern of incident electron exposures with various intensities, was applied to fabricate silicon point-contact devices. The drain current (I_d) of the device oscillates against gate voltage. The electrical characteristics of the single-electron transistor were observed to be consistent with the expected behavior of electron transport through gated quantum dots, up to 150 K. The dependence of the electrical characteristics on the dot size reveals that the I_d oscillation follows from the Coulomb blockade by poly-Si grains in the poly-Si dot. The method of fabrication of this device is completely compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, raising the possibility of manufacturing large-scale integrated nanoelectronic systems.