Distribution Function Based Simulations of Hot-Carrier Degradation in Nanowire FETs

Abstract

Hot-carrier degradation (HCD) is again becoming a growing VLSI reliability problem. This work reports hot-carrier simulations for Si nanowire field-effect transistors (NW FETs) based on the carrier energy distribution function (DF) and compares the results to measured data. The importance of impact ionization for HCD simulations is discussed. A 1-to-1 relation between the extent of interface defects generated by hot-carriers in the channel and the degradation of several FET parameters is observed.