Modeling for reduced gate capacitance of nanoscale MOSFETs

As gate oxides become thinner, in conjunction with scaling of MOS technologies, a discrepancy arises between the gate oxide capacitance and the total gate capacitance, due to the increasing importance of the carrier distributions in the polysilicon electrodes. For the first time, based on least-squares curve fit, we quantitatively explore the impact of quantum mechanics effects in polysilicon gate region on gate capacitance. Comparing the theoretical curves with an extensive set of simulation ones has validated this model.     

Compact modeling of the effects of parasitic internal fringe capacitance on the threshold voltage of high-k gate-dielectric nanoscale SOI MOSFETs

A compact model for the effect of the parasitic internal fringe capacitance on the threshold voltage of high-k gate-dielectric silicon-on-insulator MOSFETs is developed. The authors' model includes the effects of the gate-dielectric permittivity, spacer oxide permittivity, spacer width, gate length, and the width of an MOS structure. A simple expression for the parasitic internal fringe capacitance from the bottom edge of the gate electrode is obtained and the charges induced in the source and drain regions due to this capacitance are considered. The authors demonstrate an increase in the surface potential along the channel due to these charges, resulting in a decrease in the threshold voltage with an increase in the gate-dielectric permittivity. The accuracy of the results obtained using the authors' analytical model is verified using two-dimensional device simulations.     

Negative capacitance effect in semiconductor devices

Nontrivial capacitance behavior, including a negative capacitance (NC) effect, observed in a variety of semiconductor devices, is discussed emphasizing the physical mechanism and the theoretical interpretation of experimental data. The correct interpretation of NC can be based on the analysis of the time-domain transient current in response to a small voltage step or impulse, involving a self-consistent treatment of all relevant physical effects (carrier transport, injection, recharging, etc.). NC appears in the case of the nonmonotonic or positive-valued behavior of the time-derivative of the transient current in response to a small voltage step. The time-domain transient current approach is illustrated by simulation results and experimental studies of quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs). The NC effect in QWIPs has been predicted theoretically and confirmed experimentally. The huge NC phenomenon in QWIP's is due to the nonequilibrium transient injection from the emitter caused by the properties of the injection barrier and the inertia of the QW recharging     

On the gate capacitance limits of nanoscale DG and FD SOI MOSFETs

An analytical total gate capacitance C/sub G/ model for symmetric double-gate (DG) and fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD/SOI) MOSFETs of arbitrary Si film is developed and demonstrated. The model accounts for the effects of carrier-energy quantization and inversion-layer screening and is verified via self-consistent numerical solutions of the Poisson and Schro/spl uml/dinger equations. Results provide good physical insight regarding C/sub G/ degradation due to quantization and screening governed by device structure and/or transverse electric field for nanoscale DG and FD/SOI MOSFETs. Two limits of C/sub G/ at ON-state are then derived when the silicon film t/sub Si/ approaches zero and infinity. The effect of inversion-layer screening on C/sub G/, which is significant for ultrathin Si-film DG MOSFETs, is quantitatively defined for the first time. The insightful results show that the two-dimensional screening length for DG MOSFETs is independent of the doping density and much shorter than the bulk Debye length as a result of strong structural confinement.     

Resonant converter controlled by variable capacitance devices

A new device called the variable capacitance device is proposed, and its application to the output voltage regulation of resonant converters is discussed. The new device has an independent input terminal for controlling its capacitance. The converters used are the well-known Schwarz circuit and the buck-type current-resonant converter with a resonant switch. By applying the devices to the capacitors in LC resonant tanks, the resonant converters can be regulated with the switching frequency fixed     

Exact closed-form expressions for substrate resistance and capacitance extraction in nanoscale VLSI

A new exact formula to determine the substrate resistance and capacitance is presented in this work. It is derived from the solution of the Laplace equations for equivalent problems. It achieves the level of accuracy of standard electromagnetic methods while it is orders of magnitude faster than them. Equations for both rectangular and non-rectangular shapes of interconnect lines which apply to sub-micron technologies are presented. Both data from commercial simulators and measurement data obtained from a fabricated test chip are utilized in order to show the validity of the proposed formula. The results show that the proposed formula succeeds in computing the substrate's resistive and capacitive coupling.     

Plasmonics: Applications to nanoscale terahertz and optical devices

This paper reviews the main physical aspects involved in plasmonic devices, which are considered as a route to subwavelength devices and represents one of the most studied areas of nanophotonics. The paper presents a comprehensive introduction into the various physical mechanisms that generate the surface plasmon polariton—an electromagnetic surface wave confined to the interface between a metal and a dielectric. In this context, basic applications, such as sensors or waveguides, are briefly mentioned. Then, after presenting the main mechanisms for surface plasmon generation and detection, the most important devices based on plasmons are described in detail.     

Investigation on NBTI-induced dynamic variability in nanoscale CMOS devices: Modeling,experimental evidence,and impact on circuits

With the downscaling of CMOS devices, dynamic variability induced by negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) has become a critical issue. In addition to the time-dependent device-to-device variation (DDV) of NBTI degradation, the cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) originated from random trap occupation is found non-negligible and should be added into the total dynamic variation. This paper summarizes our recent studies on NBTI-induced dynamic variability, focusing on the CCV effect, with more details on the statistical modeling, circuit reliability simulation methodologies and experimental results. By adding the random trap occupation into consideration, a statistical model for total dynamic variation (DDV + CCV) is proposed. The effective occupancy probability p_eff is introduced as a key parameter for modeling and circuit reliability simulation. With the statistical trap response (STR) method and modified on-the-fly method, the proposed model is validated by the experimental evidence under both DC and AC NBTI. According to the model and experimental results, circuit reliability simulation framework is proposed for both long-term quasi-static and short-term transient performance evaluation with the additional impact of CCV. Two representative digital circuit units, ring oscillator (RO) and SRAM cell, are simulated under different conditions, indicating it necessary to consider the evident influence of the CCV in accurate circuit reliability evaluation. The results are helpful for the reliability/variability-aware circuit design in nanoscale technology.     

Quantitative scanning capacitance microscopy analysis of two-dimensional dopant concentrations at nanoscale dimensions

We have applied the scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) technique of twodimensional (2-D) semiconductor dopant profiling to implanted silicon cross sections. This has permitted the first direct comparison of SCM profiling scans to secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) depth profiles. The results compare favorably in depth and several readily identifiable features of the SIMS profiles such as peak concentration and junction depth are apparent in the SCM scans at corresponding depths. The application of dopant profiling to two dimensions is possible by calibrating the SCM levels with the one-dimensional (1-D) SIMS data. Furthermore, we have subsequently simulated the SCM results with an analytic expression readily derivable from 1-D capacitance vs voltage capacitance-voltage theory. This result represents a significant breakthrough in the quantitative measurement of 2-D doping profiles.     

A novel hydrodynamic model for nanoscale devices simulation

This paper presents a novel scheme to incorporate quantum effect in classical hydrodynamic model. The scheme can be applied to multi-dimensional and transient conditions and no additional equations are required to solve quantum potential, so complexity of equations is drastically reduced. Simulation results show consistent with that of Monte Carlo simulation. This technology provides an efficient method for investigating quantum effect in small size semiconductor devices. A new guess method for hydrodynamics model has also been proposed in this paper and a 2D hydrodynamic simulator based on quantum correction and new initial guess method has been developed. The solution obtained from DD model gives a good initial guess of HD model. Its advantage is it can achieve convergence after a few iterations because initial guess is closed to final solution. Two-dimensional simulations have been carried out on a few nanoscale devices. The results have been compared with that of other initial guess methods and the significant differences have been found, especially in numerical stability.     

Cross-section analysis of electric devices by scanning capacitance microscope

Carrier influence of semiconductor devices is important as it affects the function of the device. In this experiment, the carrier density distribution in the cross-section of semiconductor device was analyzed by SCM: Scanning Capacitance Microscope which is one of the measuring mode of SPM: Scanning Probe Microscope.This paper describe measurement result of change in carrier density by the gate voltage at p channel area of CMOS device and its efficiency to investigating dopant profile on 16MDRAM cross-section.     

Modeling of smart devices

The precise numerical modeling of electromechanical smart structures and devices is reported. This modeling is performed on the basis of finite and boundary element procedures solving coupled field problems arising in transducer technology. Furthermore, the controler is embedded within the simulation process. Therewith, the numerical computation of the closed loop starting with the sensor and ending with the actuator is performed. Results are shown for an electrostatic excited plate as well as an electromagnetic excited tube, which are both actively damped by controlled piezoelectric actuators.     

Negative capacitance and its photo-inhibition in organic bulk heterojunction devices

We report the dynamic admittance, both in the dark and under illumination, of heterojunctions made of poly(3-hexyl thiophene)/1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl[6,6]C₆₁ (P3HT:PCBM) blends, which are used in efficient organic solar cells. In the dark there appears a huge low frequency negative capacitance which we associate with slow electron hole bimolecular recombination at the heterojunction interfaces. Surprisingly, under photoexcitation the negative capacitance gradually disappears with increasing light intensity. We attribute this positive photoinduced capacitance to the combined effect of (1) long lived photogenerated charges at the P3HT:PCBM interfaces that increase electron-hole bimolecular recombination rate, which in turn renders the capacitance less negative and (2) trapped photogenerated charges that increase the capacitance upon re-emission.     

Simple technique to fabricate microscale and nanoscale silicon waveguide devices

Fabrication of microscale and nanoscale sili-con waveguide devices requires patterning silicon, but until recently, exploitation of the technology has been restricted by the difficulty of forming ever-small features with minimum linewidth fluctuation.A technique was developed for fabricating such devices achieving vertical sidewall profile, smooth sidewall roughness of less than 10 nm, and fine features of 40 nm.Subsequently, silicon microring resonator and silicon-grating coupler were realized using this technique.     

Gate capacitance attenuation in MOS devices with thin gatedielectrics

As gate oxides become thinner, in conjunction with scaling of MOS technologies, a discrepancy arises between the gate oxide capacitance and the total gate capacitance, due to the increasing importance of the carrier distributions in the silicon and polysilicon electrodes. For the first time, we quantitatively explore the combined impact of degenerate carrier statistics, quantum effects, and the semiconducting nature of the gate electrode on gate capacitance. Only by including all of these effects can we successfully model the capacitance-voltage behavior of sub-10 nm MOS capacitors. For typical devices, we find the gate capacitance to be 10% less than the oxide capacitance, but it can be attenuated by 25% or more for 4 nm oxides with polysilicon gates doped to less than 10²⁰ cm^-3     

Dopant atoms as quantum components in silicon nanoscale devices

Recent progress in nanoscale fabrication allows many fundamental studies of the few dopant atoms in various semiconductor nanostructures. Since the size of nanoscale devices has touched the limit of the nature, a single dopant atom may dominate the performance of the device. Besides, the quantum computing considered as a future choice beyond Moore's law also utilizes dopant atoms as functional units. Therefore, the dopant atoms will play a significant role in the future novel nanoscale devices. This review focuses on the study of few dopant atoms as quantum components in silicon nanoscale device. The control of the number of dopant atoms and unique quantum transport characteristics induced by dopant atoms are presented. It can be predicted that the development of nanoelectronics based on dopant atoms will pave the way for new possibilities in quantum electronics.     

Failure of moments-based transport models in nanoscale devices near equilibrium

It is shown that the conductance in nanoscale devices near equilibrium strongly depends on the choice of the transport model. Errors larger than a factor of two can be encountered, if the drift-diffusion (DD) model is used instead of a model based on the full Boltzmann equation. This effect is due to a fundamental difference in carrier heating between bulk systems and devices. Although carrier heating is included in hydrodynamic models, this effect is captured only partially by these models due to the model inherent approximations. A direct consequence of the failure of the DD approximation is that the usual method for inversion layer mobility extraction from measurements in the linear regime becomes inaccurate for short gate lengths and the extracted mobilities might be too small. This error has also an impact on the modeling accuracy at strong nonequilibrium. In the case of the DD model, the overestimation of the conductivity in the linear regime can partly compensate the underestimation of the current at high bias, and the model accidentally appears to be more accurate than expected.     

Modeling of discrete semiconductor devices

Numerical modeling established itself as a powerful tool for the analysis and design of discrete semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. The paper reviews the basic semiconductor equations, the physical internal mechanisms implemented in the present simulation programs and the numerical methods used to solve the nonlinear semiconductor equations. Selected results of numerical simulation of high frequency and high power discrete devices are given. The exemples comprise bipolar and FET devices made on Si or GaAs, operating in steady state or transient conditions and modeled in one or two dimensions.