Investigation of Analog/RF Performance and Reliability Behavior of Silicon Nanowire MOSFETs

- In this paper, the analog/RF performance and reliability behavior of silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs) are investigated. Analog/RF Figures-of-Merit (FoMs) of SNWTs are studied, including transconductance efficiency, intrinsic gain, cutoff frequency and maximum oscillation frequency. The impact of device parameter fluctuations is also evaluated. In addition, hot carrier injection (HCI) and negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) reliability of n-type and p-type SNWTs is studied. The worse-case bias of HCI and HCI lifetime for the n-type SNWTs are discussed, as well as DC/AC NBTI of the p-type SNWTs and dependence of frequency and gate voltage. Abnormal NBTI fluctuation in short-channel SNWTs was observed and analyzed, with a new on-line I_g method demonstrated for the suppression of this NBTI fluctuation.