Variability Effects in FinFET Transistors and Emerging NC-FinFET

Abstract

This work investigates, the impact of different variability sources 14nm FinFET transistors compared to their counterpart Negative Capacitance FinFETs transistors. We focus on NC-FinFETs that are constructed in a Metal–Ferroelectric–Insulator–Semiconductor (MFIS) configuration, unlike existing state of the art, which employs Metal–Ferroelectric–Metal-Insulator–Semiconductor (MFMIS) structure in its variability analysis. Our investigation confirms that the existing conclusion, in which NC-FinFETs exhibit a higher immunity against variation, still holds even in MFIS structure. We study the impact that each of (1) random dopant fluctuation, (2) work-function variation, (3) HfO2 dielectric surface roughness, (4) interfacial layer surface roughness, and (5) ferroelectric variation has individually and jointly on the threshold voltage, sub-threshold swing, ON current and OFF current of NC-nFinFETs and NC-pFinFETs in comparison to their counterpart (baseline) FinFET devices.