High-field carrier velocity in silicon tri-gate nanowire pMOSFETs with <100>- and <110>-oriented channel

Nanowire transistors (NW Tr.) are promising device structures for ultralow-power LSI [1-3]. In our previous work, we demonstrated I_on improvement of short-channel NW nFETs and pFETs by adopting <;100>;-oriented NW channel instead of conventional <;110>; channel [3]. Although low-field mobility in <;100>;- and <;110>;-oriented NW Tr. have been thoroughly studied [3,4], the origin of higher I_on in short-channel <;100>;-oriented NW Tr. than in <;110>; NW Tr. is still unclear. In order to clarify the determining factors of I_on in short-channel devices, understanding of high-field carrier velocity as well as low-field mobility is required.