Characteristic Fluctuations of Dynamic Power Delay Induced by Random Nanosized Titanium Nitride Grains and the Aspect Ratio Effect of Gate-All-Around Nanowire CMOS Devices and Circuits

Abstract

In this study, we investigate direct current (DC)/alternating current (AC) characteristic variability induced by work function fluctuation (WKF) with respect to different nanosized metal grains and the variation of aspect ratios (ARs) of channel cross-sections on a 10 nm gate gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire (NW) metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) device. The associated timing and power fluctuations of the GAA NW complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuits are further estimated and analyzed simultaneously. The experimentally validated device and circuit simulation running on a parallel computing system are intensively performed while considering the effects of WKF and various ARs to access the device’s nominal and fluctuated characteristics. To provide the best accuracy of simulation, we herein calibrate the simulation results and experimental data by adjusting the fitting parameters of the mobility model. Transfer characteristics, dynamic timing, and power consumption of the tested circuit are calculated using a mixed device–circuit simulation technique. The timing fluctuation mainly follows the trend of the variation of threshold voltage. The fluctuation terms of power consumption comprising static, short-circuit, and dynamic powers are governed by the trend that the larger the grain size, the larger the fluctuation.

Special Issue: Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor (FET)

“…Seoane et al [2] investigated the impact of four major sources of intrinsic variability (line-edge roughness, gate-edge roughness, metal grain granularity in a gate, and random dopants in a transistor body) on the transistor performance in digital circuits. On the other hand, Li et al [3] analysed the effect that metal gate work function fluctuations have on the transistor DC/AC characteristics with respect to different nanoscale metal grains and the variation of aspect ratio of channel cross-sections.…”