Modeling Of Two Dimensional Graphene And Non-graphene Material Based Tunnel Field Effect Transistors For Integrated Circuit Design

The Moore’s law of scaling of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) had been a driving force toward the unprecedented advancement in development of integrated circuit over the last five decades. As the technology scales down to 7 nm node and below following the Moore’s law, conventional MOSFETs are becoming more vulnerable to extremely high off-state leakage current exhibiting a tremendous amount of standby power dissipation. Moreover, the fundamental physical limit of MOSFET of 60 mV/decade subthreshold slope exacerbates the situation further requiring current transport mechanism other than drift and diffusion for the operation of transistors. One way to limit such unrestrained amount of power dissipation is to explore novel materials with superior thermal and electrical properties compared to traditional bulk materials. On the other hand, energy efficient steep subthreshold slope devices are the other possible alternatives to conventional MOSFET based on emerging novel materials. This dissertation addresses the potential of both advanced materials and devices for development of next generation energy efficient integrated circuits. Among the different steep subthreshold slope devices, tunnel field effect transistor (TFET) has been considered as a promising candidate after MOSFET. A superior gate control on source-channel band-to-band tunneling providing subthreshold slopes well below than 60 mV/decade. With the emergence of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials, interest in the design of TFET based on such novel 2D materials has also grown significantly. Graphene being the first and the most studied among 2D materials with exotic electronic and thermal properties. This dissertation primarily considers current transport modeling of graphene based tunnel devices from transport phenomena to energy efficient integrated circuit design. Three current transport models: semi-classical, semi-quantum and numerical simulations are described for the modeling of graphene nanoribbon tunnel field effect transistor (GNR TFET) where the semi-classical model is in close agreement with the quantum transport simulation. Moreover, the models produced are also extended for integrated circuit design using Verilog-A hardware description language for logic design. In order to overcome the challenges associated with the band gap engineering for making graphene transistor for logic operation, the promise of graphene based interlayer tunneling transistors are discussed along with their existing fundamental physical limitation of subthreshold slope. It has been found that such interlayer tunnel transistor has very poor electrostatic gate control on drain current. It gives subthreshold slope greater than the thermionic limit of 60 mV/decade at room temperature. In order to resolve such limitation of interlayer tunneling transistors, a new type of transistor named “junctionless tunnel effect transistor (JTET)” has been invented and modeled for the first time considering graphene-boron nitride (BN)-graphene and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-boron nitride (BN) heterostructures, where the interlayer tunneling mechanism controls the source-drain ballistic transport instead of depleting carriers in the channel. Steep subthreshold slope, low power and high frequency THz operation are few of the promising features studied for such graphene and MoS2 JTETs. From current transport modeling to energy efficient integrated circuit design using Verilog-A has been carried out for these new devices as well. Thus, findings in this dissertation would suggest the exciting opportunity of a new class of next generation energy efficient material based transistors as switches

Compact Modeling of Intrinsic Capacitances in Double-Gate Tunnel-FETs

La miniaturització dels MOSFET en els circuits integrats ha elevat la tecnologia microelectrònica. Aquesta tendència també augmenta el grau de complexitat d'aquests circuits i els seus components bàsics. En els MOSFET convencionals, el corrent es basa en l'emissió termoiònica de portadors de càrrega, que per això limita el pendent subumbral en aquests transistors a 60 mV / dec. Per tant, per superar aquest límit i continuar amb la miniaturització per mantenir el ritme de la llei de Moore, es requereixen estructures alternatives. Entre aquestes, el transistor d'efecte de camp per túnel (TFET) es considera un possible successor de l'MOSFET. A causa del seu mecanisme alternatiu de transport de corrent, conegut com a túnel de banda a banda (B2B), el pendent subumbral en TFET pot fer-se inferior al límit de 60 mV / dec. Per comprendre i estimar el comportament dels TFET, no només com un element únic sinó també a nivell de circuit, es requereix un model compacte d'aquest dispositiu. En aquesta tesi es presenta un model basat en càrrega per descriure el comportament capacitiu d'un TFET de doble porta (DG TFET). No obstant això, la simplicitat i la flexibilitat de el model permeten usar-lo per a un altre tipus d'estructures TFET, com els TFET planars o de nanofils d'una sola porta (SG TFETs). El model és verificat amb les simulacions TCAD, així com amb mesures experimentals de TFET fabricats. El model de capacitància també inclou l'efecte dels elements paràsits. A més, en el context d'aquest treball també s'investiga la influència dels contactes de barrera Schottky en el comportament capacitiu dels TFET. Aquest model finalment es combina amb un model DC compacte existent per formar un model TFET compacte complet. A continuació, el model compacte s'implementa per a simulacions transitòries de circuits oscil·ladors d'anell basats en TFET.La miniaturización de los MOSFET en los circuitos integrados ha elevado la tecnología microelectrónica. Esta tendencia también aumenta el grado de complejidad de estos circuitos y sus componentes básicos. En los MOSFET convencionales, la corriente se basa en la emisión termoiónica de portadores de carga, que por ello limita la pendiente subumbral en estos transistores a 60 mV/dec. Por tanto, para superar este límite y continuar con la miniaturización para mantener el ritmo de la ley de Moore, se requieren estructuras alternativas. Entre estas, el transistor de efecto de campo por túnel (TFET) se considera un posible sucesor del MOSFET. Debido a su mecanismo alternativo de transporte de corriente, conocido como túnel de banda a banda (B2B), la pendiente subumbral en TFET puede hacerse inferior al límite de 60 mV/dec. Para comprender y estimar el comportamiento de los TFET, no sólo como un elemento único sino también a nivel de circuito, se requiere un modelo compacto de este dispositivo. En esta tesis se presenta un modelo basado en carga para describir el comportamiento capacitivo de un TFET de doble puerta (DG TFET). Sin embargo, la simplicidad y la flexibilidad del modelo permiten usarlo para otro tipo de estructuras TFET, como los TFET planares o de nanohílos de una sola puerta (SG TFETs). El modelo es verificado con las simulaciones TCAD, así como con medidas experimentales de TFET fabricados. El modelo de capacitancia también incluye el efecto de los elementos parásitos. Además, en el contexto de este trabajo también se investiga la influencia de los contactos de barrera Schottky en el comportamiento capacitivo de los TFET. Este modelo finalmente se combina con un modelo DC compacto existente para formar un modelo TFET compacto completo. A continuación, el modelo compacto se implementa para simulaciones transitorias de circuitos osciladores de anillo basados en TFET.Miniaturization of the MOSFETs on the integrated circuits has elevated the microelectronic technology. This trend also increases the degree of complexity of these circuits and their building blocks. In conventional MOSFETs the current is based on the thermionic—emission of charge carrier, which therefore limits the subthreshold swing in these transistors to 60 mV/dec. Hence, to overcome this limit and continue with down scaling to keep pace with the Moor’s law, alternative structures are required. Among these, the tunnel—field—effect transistor (TFET) is considered as a potential successor of the MOSFET. Due to its alternative current transport mechanism, known as band—to—band (B2B) tunneling, the subthreshold swing in TFETs can overcome the 60 mV/dec limit. In order to comprehend and estimate the behavior of TFETs, not only as a single element but also on the circuit level, a compact model of this device is required. In this dissertation a charge –based model to describes the capacitive behavior of a double—gate (DG) TFET is presented. However, simplicity and flexibility of the model allow to use it for other type of TFET structures such as single—gate (SG) planar or nanowire TFETs. The model is verified with the TCAD simulations as well as the measurement data of fabricated TFETs. The capacitance model also includes the effect of the parasitic elements. Furthermore, in the context of this work also the influence of Schottky barrier contacts on the capacitive behavior of TFETs is investigated. This model is finally combined with an existing compact DC model to form a complete compact TFET model. The compact model is then implemented for transient simulations of TFET—based inverter and ring—oscillator circuits

Crosstalk computing: circuit techniques, implementation and potential applications

Title from PDF of title [age viewed January 32, 2022Dissertation advisor: Mostafizur RahmanVitaIncludes bibliographical references (page 117-136)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2020This work presents a radically new computing concept for digital Integrated Circuits (ICs), called Crosstalk Computing. The conventional CMOS scaling trend is facing device scaling limitations and interconnect bottleneck. The other primary concern of miniaturization of ICs is the signal-integrity issue due to Crosstalk, which is the unwanted interference of signals between neighboring metal lines. The Crosstalk is becoming inexorable with advancing technology nodes. Traditional computing circuits always tries to reduce this Crosstalk by applying various circuit and layout techniques. In contrast, this research develops novel circuit techniques that can leverage this detrimental effect and convert it astutely to a useful feature. The Crosstalk is engineered into a logic computation principle by leveraging deterministic signal interference for innovative circuit implementation. This research work presents a comprehensive circuit framework for Crosstalk Computing and derives all the key circuit elements that can enable this computing model. Along with regular digital logic circuits, it also presents a novel Polymorphic circuit approach unique to Crosstalk Computing. In Polymorphic circuits, the functionality of a circuit can be altered using a control variable. Owing to the multi-functional embodiment in polymorphic-circuits, they find many useful applications such as reconfigurable system design, resource sharing, hardware security, and fault-tolerant circuit design, etc. This dissertation shows a comprehensive list of polymorphic logic gate implementations, which were not reported previously in any other work. It also performs a comparison study between Crosstalk polymorphic circuits and existing polymorphic approaches, which are either inefficient due to custom non-linear circuit styles or propose exotic devices. The ability to design a wide range of polymorphic logic circuits (basic and complex logics) compact in design and minimal in transistor count is unique to Crosstalk Computing, which leads to benefits in the circuit density, power, and performance. The circuit simulation and characterization results show a 6x improvement in transistor count, 2x improvement in switching energy, and 1.5x improvement in performance compared to counterpart implementation in CMOS circuit style. Nevertheless, the Crosstalk circuits also face issues while cascading the circuits; this research analyzes all the problems and develops auxiliary circuit techniques to fix the problems. Moreover, it shows a module-level cascaded polymorphic circuit example, which also employs the auxiliary circuit techniques developed. For the very first time, it implements a proof-of-concept prototype Chip for Crosstalk Computing at TSMC 65nm technology and demonstrates experimental evidence for runtime reconfiguration of the polymorphic circuit. The dissertation also explores the application potentials for Crosstalk Computing circuits. Finally, the future work section discusses the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) challenges and proposes an appropriate design flow; besides, it also discusses ideas for the efficient implementation of Crosstalk Computing structures. Thus, further research and development to realize efficient Crosstalk Computing structures can leverage the comprehensive circuit framework developed in this research and offer transformative benefits for the semiconductor industry.Introduction and Motivation -- More Moore and Relevant Beyond CMOS Research Directions -- Crosstalk Computing -- Crosstalk Circuits Based on Perception Model -- Crosstalk Circuit Types -- Cascading Circuit Issues and Sollutions -- Existing Polymorphic Circuit Approaches -- Crosstalk Polymorphic Circuits -- Comparison and Benchmarking of Crosstalk Gates -- Practical Realization of Crosstalk Gates -- Poential Applications -- Conclusion and Future Wor

Tunnel Field Effect Transistors:from Steep-Slope Electronic Switches to Energy Efficient Logic Applications

The aim of this work has been the investigation of homo-junction Tunnel Field Effect Transistors starting from a compact modelling perspective to its possible applications. Firstly a TCAD based simulation study is done to explain the main device characteristics. The main differences of a Tunnel FET with respect to a conventional MOSFET is pointed out and the differences have been explained. A compact DC/AC model has been developed which is capable of describing the I-V characteristics in all regimes of operation. The model takes in to account ambi-polarity, drain side breakdown and all tunneling related physics. A temperature dependence is also added to the model to study the temperature independent behavior of tunneling. The model was further implemented in a Verilog-A based circuit simulator. Following calibration to experimental results of Silicon and strained-Silicon TFETs, the model has been also used to benchmark against a standard CMOS node for digital and analog applications. The circuits built with Tunnel FETs showed interesting temperature behavior which was superior to the compared CMOS node. In the same work, we also explore and propose solutions for using TFETs for low power memory applications. Both volatile and non-volatile memory concepts are investigated and explored. The application of a Tunnel FET as a capacitor-less memory has been experimentally demonstrated for the first time. New device concepts have been proposed and process flows for the same are developed to realize them in the clean room in EPFL

Intelligent Circuits and Systems

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society.　 This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering

Challenges and solutions for large-scale integration of emerging technologies

Title from PDF of title page viewed June 15, 2021Dissertation advisor: Mostafizur RahmanVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 67-88)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Computing and Engineering and Department of Physics and Astronomy. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2021The semiconductor revolution so far has been primarily driven by the ability to shrink devices and interconnects proportionally (Moore's law) while achieving incremental benefits. In sub-10nm nodes, device scaling reaches its fundamental limits, and the interconnect bottleneck is dominating power and performance. As the traditional way of CMOS scaling comes to an end, it is essential to find an alternative to continue this progress. However, an alternative technology for general-purpose computing remains elusive; currently pursued research directions face adoption challenges in all aspects from materials, devices to architecture, thermal management, integration, and manufacturing. Crosstalk Computing, a novel emerging computing technique, addresses some of the challenges and proposes a new paradigm for circuit design, scaling, and security. However, like other emerging technologies, Crosstalk Computing also faces challenges like designing large-scale circuits using existing CAD tools, scalability, evaluation and benchmarking of large-scale designs, experimentation through commercial foundry processes to compete/co-exist with CMOS for digital logic implementations. This dissertation addresses these issues by providing a methodology for circuit synthesis customizing the existing EDA tool flow, evaluating and benchmarking against state-of-the-art CMOS for large-scale circuits designed at 7nm from MCNC benchmark suits. This research also presents a study on Crosstalk technology's scalability aspects and shows how the circuits' properties evolve from 180nm to 7nm technology nodes. Some significant results are for primitive Crosstalk gate, designed in 180nm, 65nm, 32nm, and 7nm technology nodes, the average reduction in power is 42.5%, and an average improvement in performance is 34.5% comparing to CMOS for all mentioned nodes. For benchmarking large-scale circuits designed at 7nm, there are 48%, 57%, and 10% improvements against CMOS designs in terms of density, power, and performance, respectively. An experimental demonstration of a proof-of-concept prototype chip for Crosstalk Computing at TSMC 65nm technology is also presented in this dissertation, showing the Crosstalk gates can be realized using the existing manufacturing process. Additionally, the dissertation also provides a fine-grained thermal management approach for emerging technologies like transistor-level 3-D integration (Monolithic 3-D, Skybridge, SN3D), which holds the most promise beyond 2-D CMOS technology. However, such 3-D architectures within small form factors increase hotspots and demand careful consideration of thermal management at all integration levels. This research proposes a new direction for fine-grained thermal management approach for transistor-level 3-D integrated circuits through the insertion of architected heat extraction features that can be part of circuit design, and an integrated methodology for thermal evaluation of 3-D circuits combining different simulation outcomes at advanced nodes, which can be integrated to traditional CAD flow. The results show that the proposed heat extraction features effectively reduce the temperature from a heated location. Thus, the dissertation provides a new perspective to overcome the challenges faced by emerging technologies where the device, circuit, connectivity, heat management, and manufacturing are addressed in an integrated manner.Introduction and motivation -- Cross talk computing overview -- Logic simplification approach for Crosstalk circuit design -- Crostalk computing scalability study: from 180 nm to 7 nm -- Designing large*scale circuits in Crosstalk at 7 nm -- Comparison and benchmarking -- Experimental demonstration of Crosstalk computing -- Thermal management challenges and mitigation techniques for transistor-level- 3D integratio

Multiple-Independent-Gate Field-Effect Transistors for High Computational Density and Low Power Consumption

Transistors are the fundamental elements in Integrated Circuits (IC). The development of transistors significantly improves the circuit performance. Numerous technology innovations have been adopted to maintain the continuous scaling down of transistors. With all these innovations and efforts, the transistor size is approaching the natural limitations of materials in the near future. The circuits are expected to compute in a more efficient way. From this perspective, new device concepts are desirable to exploit additional functionality. On the other hand, with the continuously increased device density on the chips, reducing the power consumption has become a key concern in IC design. To overcome the limitations of Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology in computing efficiency and power reduction, this thesis introduces the multiple- independent-gate Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) with silicon nanowires and FinFET structures. The device not only has the capability of polarity control, but also provides dual-threshold- voltage and steep-subthreshold-slope operations for power reduction in circuit design. By independently modulating the Schottky junctions between metallic source/drain and semiconductor channel, the dual-threshold-voltage characteristics with controllable polarity are achieved in a single device. This property is demonstrated in both experiments and simulations. Thanks to the compact implementation of logic functions, circuit-level benchmarking shows promising performance with a configurable dual-threshold-voltage physical design, which is suitable for low-power applications. This thesis also experimentally demonstrates the steep-subthreshold-slope operation in the multiple-independent-gate FETs. Based on a positive feedback induced by weak impact ionization, the measured characteristics of the device achieve a steep subthreshold slope of 6 mV/dec over 5 decades of current. High Ion/Ioff ratio and low leakage current are also simultaneously obtained with a good reliability. Based on a physical analysis of the device operation, feasible improvements are suggested to further enhance the performance. A physics-based surface potential and drain current model is also derived for the polarity-controllable Silicon Nanowire FETs (SiNWFETs). By solving the carrier transport at Schottky junctions and in the channel, the core model captures the operation with independent gate control. It can serve as the core framework for developing a complete compact model by integrating advanced physical effects. To summarize, multiple-independent-gate SiNWFETs and FinFETs are extensively studied in terms of fabrication, modeling, and simulation. The proposed device concept expands the family of polarity-controllable FETs. In addition to the enhanced logic functionality, the polarity-controllable SiNWFETs and FinFETs with the dual-threshold-voltage and steep-subthreshold-slope operation can be promising candidates for future IC design towards low-power applications

Electronic Nanodevices

The start of high-volume production of field-effect transistors with a feature size below 100 nm at the end of the 20th century signaled the transition from microelectronics to nanoelectronics. Since then, downscaling in the semiconductor industry has continued until the recent development of sub-10 nm technologies. The new phenomena and issues as well as the technological challenges of the fabrication and manipulation at the nanoscale have spurred an intense theoretical and experimental research activity. New device structures, operating principles, materials, and measurement techniques have emerged, and new approaches to electronic transport and device modeling have become necessary. Examples are the introduction of vertical MOSFETs in addition to the planar ones to enable the multi-gate approach as well as the development of new tunneling, high-electron mobility, and single-electron devices. The search for new materials such as nanowires, nanotubes, and 2D materials for the transistor channel, dielectrics, and interconnects has been part of the process. New electronic devices, often consisting of nanoscale heterojunctions, have been developed for light emission, transmission, and detection in optoelectronic and photonic systems, as well for new chemical, biological, and environmental sensors. This Special Issue focuses on the design, fabrication, modeling, and demonstration of nanodevices for electronic, optoelectronic, and sensing applications

An Exploration of Potential Pathways Toward Emerging Electronic Devices with Ferroelectric Materials

In the relentless pursuit of Moore's law, device scaling down to the nanometer regime has gradually reached a bottleneck as the power dissipation in microchips becomes a more and more challenging concern. Therefore, emerging technologies beyond CMOS are in urgent need of development. Among many proposed emerging devices, we primarily focus our research attention on the negative capacitance phenomenon in ferroelectrics and the magnetoelectric effect in multiferroics for low power device applications in this thesis. To assess the potential application of the negative capacitance effect, we first implement a physics-based circuit-compatible model of single domain ferroelectric materials for the study of the performance of negative capacitance field-effect transistors at the device and circuit levels. The single domain ferroelectric model is further extended to a multi-domain model by adopting the phase field formalism to capture the polycrystalline nature of ferroelectric films. For realistic logic device applications, however, the physical mechanisms behind the experimental observation of hysteresis-free negative capacitance behaviors have not yet been clear. Therefore, we dedicate our research efforts to the study of such a key phenomenon for the realization of ultra-low power negative capacitance field effect transistors. In addition, with proper free energy contributions included to describe the experimentally observed two-step polarization switching process in bismuth ferrite, a unified micromagnetic/ferroelectric simulation framework is developed to model the deterministic switching dynamics and thermal stability of the single-domain BFO/CoFe heterojunction. Lastly, a comprehensive thesis overview and the important topics for future works are given, especially the trapped charge dynamics in ferroelectric field effect transistors, which is the major reliability concern for the memory device realization.Ph.D

A complete and Verilog-A compatible Gate-All-Around long-channel junctionless MOSFET model implemented in CMOS inverters

A complete and Verilog-A compatible Gate-All-Around long-channel junctionless MOSFET model implemented in CMOS invertersDOI: 10.1016/j.mejo.2015.09.009 URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026269215002232 Filiació URV: SIIn this paper, we present the results of the implementation of a complete DC and AC Gate-All-Around (GAA) long-channel junctionless MOSFET model in Verilog-A code, which will be further used in commercial circuit simulators. The model in Verilog-A is integrated in the SmartSpice circuit simulator and tested in a CMOS inverter. Both p-channel and n-channel device models are validated. Also, the results are compared with data from 3D numerical simulations, showing a very good agreement in all transistors¿ operation regimes