TCAD calibration for FinFET reliability predictions

Semiconductor companies using advanced technologies with FinFETs often rely on the foundry-provided SPICE model for reliability prediction. However, SPICE model has limitations in terms of its valid range of the operating conditions like voltage, temperature, etc. TCAD (technology computer aided design) simulation is not only critical for understanding semiconductor reliability physics, it can also bridge the gap to predict the device level reliability beyond the valid range of SPICE model. It is therefore, critical to calibrate the TCAD so that it represents silicon data reasonably well. In this paper, the calibration methodologies used to match TCAD with silicon-based SPICE model have been discussed for a 16nm FinFET technology. Self-heating effects (SHE) in FinFETs can cause severe reliability degradation. A calibrated TCAD deck has been used in this paper to study the SHE in FinFET into the operating conditions beyond the valid range of SPICE model.