Impact of contact and local interconnect scaling on logic performance

Abstract

We perform a comparative analysis of metal-Si and metal-insulator-Si (MIS) contacts and quantify the impact of the contact/via resistances on logic performance. Our results show that silicide contacts account for 32% degradation in the ON current of an nFinFET (ION) compared to ideal contact. MIS contacts which lead to lowering of Schottky barrier height provide 12% performance gain at iso-energy. Technology scaling to 5 nm will make MIS contact contribute 35% to the overall extrinsic resistance, with metal resistance contribution rising to 20%.