Comparative study of triangular-shaped silicon nanowire transistors

Nanowire transistors with triangular cross sections (TNWTs) are proposed and studied. TNWT's working mechanism and the influence of physical parameters on device performance are investigated with TCAD tools. It is found that TNWT's conducting area expands from the channel center to the triangle's vertices with higher gate bias. TNWT has larger cross section than its counterpart with inscribed circle nanowire, thus exhibiting higher drain current and cut-off frequency. TNWT with longer channel length shows less influence from DIBL, and requires lower gate work function to achieve proper bias. Moreover, we also find that TNWT with moderate angle is less affected by SCE, and shows lower subthreshold slope.