Benchmarking of FinFET, Nanosheet, and Nanowire FET Architectures for Future Technology Nodes

Nanosheet (NS) and nanowire (NW) FET architectures scaled to a gate length (L G ) of 16 nm and below are benchmarked against equivalent FinFETs. The device performance is predicted using a 3D finite element drift-diffusion/Monte Carlo simulation toolbox with integrated 2D Schrödinger equation based quantum corrections. The NS FET is a viable replacement for the FinFET in high performance (HP) applications when scaled down to L G of 16 nm offering a larger on-current (I ON ) and slightly better sub-threshold characteristics. Below L G of 16 nm, the NW FET becomes the most promising architecture offering an almost ideal sub-threshold swing, the smallest off-current (I OFF ), and the largest I ON /I OFF ratio out of the three architectures. However, the NW FET suffers from early ION saturation with the increasing gate bias that can be tackled by minimizing interface roughness and/or by optimisation of a doping profile in the device body.