Improvement in Self-Heating Characteristic by Utilizing Sapphire Substrate in Omega-Gate-Shaped Nanowire Field Effect Transistor for Wearable, Military, and Aerospace Application

Abstract

In this study, we propose an omega-shaped-gate nanowire field effect transistor (ONWFET) with a silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) substrate. In order to investigate improvements in the self-heating characteristic with the use of a SOS substrate, the lattice temperature is examined using a Synopsys Sentaurus 3D Technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulator with the results compared to those with a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. To validate the proposed structure with the SOS substrate, the locations of hot spots and heat dissipation paths (heat sinks) depending on the substrate materials are also analyzed. The electrical characteristics, specifically the on-current (Ion), off-current (Ioff), and subthreshold swing (SS), were investigated as well. Hence, it is demonstrated here that incorporating a SOS substrate can improve both the self-heating characteristic and the SS at the same time. Therefore, enhanced logic devices are feasible if using an ONWFET with a SOS substrate. Examples include wearable devices and military and future aerospace applications achieved by the radiation-resistant material Al2O3 that has high thermal conductivity.