Current Variability in Si Nanowire MOSFETs Due to Random Dopants in the Source/Drain Regions: A Fully 3-D NEGF Simulation Study

Abstract

In this paper, we study the impact of random discrete dopants in the source/drain (S/D) leads on the current variability of a gate-all-around Si nanowire transistor. Due to the strong inhomogeneities of the self-consistent electrostatic potential, a fully 3D real-space nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism is used. N-channel transistors with random discrete donors in the S/D regions varying in both numbers and locations have been simulated. We have studied the impact of quasi-bound (QB) states and transmission resonances associated with the attractive potential of the donors on the screening of the impurities and on the current transport. The convergence of the coupled 3D Poisson-NEGF equations for narrow wires with discrete dopants is cumbersome due to the quasi-discrete nature of QB states and resonances of the attractive impurity potential. We present a robust solution strategy dealing with the convergence challenges. Large variations in the on-current and modest variations in the subthreshold slope are observed in the I D-V G characteristics when comparing devices with microscopically different discrete dopant configurations. We have also estimated the access resistance associated with the random dopant regions in the source and the drain leads and find very good agreement with the resistance estimated from the bulk silicon mobility at the same doping concentration.