Analog/RF Performance of Si Nanowire MOSFETs and the Impact of Process Variation

In this paper, the analog/RF performance of Si nanowire transistors (SNWTs) and the impact of process variation are investigated for the first time. Analog/RF figures of merit of SNWTs are studied, including transconductance efficiency g
_m
/I
_d
, intrinsic gain g
_m
/g
_d
, cutoff frequency f
_t
, and maximum oscillation frequency f
_max
. The results indicate that SNWTs exhibit superior intrinsic RF scaling capability and are suitable for low-power analog/RF applications. The impact of nanowire cross-sectional shape fluctuation that is caused by process variation is studied and found to be relatively severe, and the acceptable variation tolerance for RF integrated circuit design is given