Mismatch of Ferroelectric Film on Negative Capacitance FETs Performance

In this article, we analyze the impact of process variations of the ferroelectric film on the performance of the negative capacitance field-effect transistor (NCFET). Variations of the ferroelectric layer area (resulting from the variation of the transistor dimension sizes and the edge-effect), the ferroelectric layer thickness, the polarization, and the coercivity are taken into consideration to evaluate the impact on the NCFET performance. These results can serve as a guideline to improve both the circuit performance and yield for analog and digital circuits. To showcase this ability, the influence of these variations on the oscillating frequency of a five-stage ring oscillator and the mirroring current of a current mirror are analyzed. The results show that the distribution of the standard derivation of the oscillating frequency is 1.9 MHz on condition of T
_FE
= 14 nm, WP/LP = 1 μm/45 nm, and WN/LN = 500/45 nm, and the standard derivation of the mirroring current is 0.17 μA on condition of W = 1 μm, L = 500 nm, and T
_FE
= 20 nm.