A Predictive Process Design Kit for Three-Independent-Gate Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract

The Three-Independent-Gate Field-Effect Transistor (TIGFET) is a promising beyond-CMOS technology which offers multiple modes of operation enabling unique capabilities such as the dynamic control of the device polarity and dual-threshold voltage characteristics. These operations can be used to reduce the number of transistors required for logic implementation resulting in compact logic designs and reductions in chip area and leakage current.However, the evaluation of TIGFET-based design currently relies on a close approximation for the Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) rather than traditional layout-based methods. To allow for a systematic evaluation of the design area, we present here a publicly available Predictive Process Design Kit (PDK) for a 10 nm-diameter silicon-nanowire TIGFET device. This work consists of a SPICE model and full custom physical design files including a Design Rule Manual, a Design Rule Check, and Layout Versus Schematic decks for Calibre®. We validate the design rules through the implementation of basic logic gates and a full-adder and compare extracted metrics with the FreePDK15nm TM PDK. We show 26% and 41% area reduction in the case of an XOR gate and a 1-bit fulladder design respectively. Applications for this PDK with respect to hardware security benefits are supported through a differential power analysis study.

Generating Predictive Models for Emerging Semiconductor Devices

“…Programmable polarity on transistor level enables new circuit topologies as shown with a reduced transistor count XOR-gate for RFETs in general [5], [11] and the planar RFET in particular [6]. Further device level reconfiguration has been shown to reduce transistor count in VLSI circuits with area savings up to 41% [12]. The proposed method is demonstrated with the low TRL planar RFET [4], in order to emphasize its impact in the domain of emerging devices, as the device cannot be approximated by conventional MOSFET compact models.…”