Performance Prediction of Ultrascaled SiGe/Si Core/Shell Electron and Hole Nanowire MOSFETs

The performances of ultrascaled SiGe nanowire field-effect transistors (NWFETs) are investigated using an atomistic tight-binding model and a virtual crystal approximation to describe the Si and Ge atoms. It is first demonstrated that the band edges and the effective masses of both relaxed and strained SiGe bulk are accurately reproduced by our model. The band structure model is then coupled to a top-of-the-barrier quantum transport approach to simulate the output characteristics of ultrascaled n/p SiGe NWFETs and explore their viability for future high-performance CMOS applications. We predict a considerable improvement of SiGe nFETs and pFETs over their Si counterparts for SiGe/Si core/shell structures.