Localized heating effects and scaling of sub-0.18 micron CMOS devices

Abstract

Explores the generation and effect of phonon hot spots in silicon CMOS devices under steady state operation. The phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) is used to extract generated phonon distributions for devices with channel length (L/sub eff/) down to 90 nm. Estimates are made of the impact of phonon hot spots on transistor operation into the L/sub eff/ range approaching 10 nm. In this scaling limit the dimensions of the phonon hot spot are comparable to the device channel length. It is shown that localized drain region hot spots alter drain characteristics and, in the extreme scaling limit, may affect the resistance and electron injection at the source end, hence the current drive of a device. This is the first study that attempts to quantify nonequilibrium hot phonon effects in ultra-scaled CMOS devices and their implications for future scaling.