Anatomy of Carrier Backscattering in Silicon Nanowire Transistors

We study the physics of carrier backscattering in silicon nanowire transistors by using the numerical solution of the multisubband Boltzmann transport equation, where relevant scattering mechanisms by acoustic and intervalley phonons, surface roughness, and ionized impurities are included, accounting for intrasubband and intersubband, and elastic and inelastic transitions. The validity of several assumptions in the virtual source model is checked against the numerical solution. We have found that scattering processes make it difficult to model the macroscopic quantities at the virtual source without self-consistent simulations.