Narrow-Width SOI Devices: The Role of Quantum–Mechanical Size Quantization Effect and Unintentional Doping on the Device Operation

Abstract

The ultimate limits in scaling of conventional MOSFET devices have led the researchers from all over the world to look for novel device concepts, such as ultrathin-body (UTB) silicon-on-insulator (SOI), dual-gate SOI devices, FinFETs, focused ion beam MOSFETs, etc. These novel devices suppress some of the short channel effects exhibited by conventional MOSFETs. However, a lot of the old issues still remain and new issues begin to appear. For example, in UTB SOI devices, dual-gate MOSFETs and in FinFET devices, quantum-mechanical size quantization effects significantly affect the overall device behavior. In addition, unintentional doping leads to considerable fluctuation in key device parameters. In this work we investigate the role of two-dimensional quantization effects in the operation of a narrow-width SOI device using an effective potential scheme in conjunction with a three-dimensional ensemble Monte Carlo particle-based device simulator. We also investigate the influence of unintentional doping on the operation of this device. We find that proper inclusion of quantization effects is needed to explain the experimentally observed width dependence of the threshold voltage. With regard to the problem of unintentional doping, impurities near the middle portion of the source end of the channel have most significant impact on the device drive current and the fluctuations in the device threshold voltage.