Solid-State Electronics, Vol.53, No.4, 424-432, 2009
Multi-Subband Monte Carlo simulations of I-ON degradation due to fin thickness fluctuations in FinFETs
The impact of fin thickness nonuniformities on carrier transport in n-type FinFETs is analyzed with a Multi-Subband Monte Carlo technique, which allows for an accurate description of the quasi-ballistic transport taking place in short channel devices and which comprises the dominant scattering mechanisms as well as a semi-empirical technique to handle quantization effects in the transport direction. We found that the impact of channel thickness discontinuity on the on-current is larger when the non-uniformities are located close to the Virtual Source of the device. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the on-current to thickness nonuniformity is essentially the same when considering devices with different crystal orientations. Comparison with drift-diffusion simulations reveals substantial differences in the predicted trends of the sensitivity of the drain current to thickness fluctuations in these nanoscale devices. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:FinFET;Multi-Subband Monte Carlo;Device simulation;Drift-diffusion model;Ballistic transport;Thickness fluctuations