Statistical Threshold-Voltage Variability in Scaled Decananometer Bulk HKMG MOSFETs: A Full-Scale 3-D Simulation Scaling Study

This paper presents a comprehensive full-scale three-dimensional simulation scaling study of the statistical threshold-voltage variability in bulk high-k/metal gate (HKMG) MOSFETs with gate lengths of 35, 25, 18, and 13 nm. Metal gate granularity (MGG) and corresponding workfunction-induced threshold-voltage variability have become important sources of statistical variability in bulk HKMG MOSFETs. It is found that the number of metal grains covering the gate plays an important role in determining the shape of the threshold-voltage distribution and the magnitude of the threshold-voltage variability in scaled devices in the presence of dominant variability sources (MGG, random discrete dopants, and line edge roughness). The placement of metal grains is found to also contribute to the total MGG variability. This paper presents the relative importance of MGG compared with other statistical variability sources. It is found that MGG can distort and even dominate the threshold-voltage statistical distribution when the metal grain size cannot be adequately controlled.

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