A 3-D potential model to assess DC characteristics of Si FinFETs

The potential distribution inside the channel of a Si FinFET is usually determined by a 2-D Poisson equation which does not truly describe its variation. Due to the 3-D structure of a FinFET, the geometry of the channel plays an important role in determining its output characteristics. In this paper, a 3-D Poisson equation is solved to find the potential distribution inside the channel. By using the channel potential, an I – V model is presented which can predict the characteristics of Si FinFETs. It is observed that by adding the third dimension to the Poisson equation, the accuracy of the model is improved. Devices of various dimensions are selected to test the validity of the proposed technique, and 6–45% improvement is observed in predicting the I – V characteristics of Si FinFETs with respect to the best reported model in the literature. Thus, the proposed technique can potentially be employed in software tools meant to predict the I – V characteristics of Si FinFETs.