A TCAD Simulation Study of Three-Independent-Gate Field-Effect Transistors at the 10-nm Node

Three-independent-gate FETs (TIGFETs) are Schottky-barrier-based devices, which can be reconfigured to be either n- or p-type allowing for innovative compact logic gate implementations. In this article, we present an aggressively scaled 10-nm gate-all-around silicon-germanium nanowire TIGFET device evaluated with Synopsys Sentaurus Poisson-based Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) simulations at a 0.7-V nominal supply voltage as typically used at this technology node. The operation of the TIGFET device is described in detail, with particular care given to the majority current contributions for each operating mode. When considering a silicon-germanium channel, the maximum TCAD-simulated current drive is 880.20 and 806.58 μA/μm for n- and p-type operation, respectively, thus making TIGFET devices competitive with FinFET technology at the 10-nm node. These simulations are verified using device physics calculations. Further simulations of the carrier densities for each of the TIGFET-operating configurations are performed to confirm that the simulated device is operating as intended.