Effect of Gate-Line-End-Induced Stress and Its Impact on Device’s Characteristics in FinFETs

The gate-line-end (GLE)-induced stress effects on the high-k/metal-gate FinFETs was investigated. Compared with the devices with the GLE of 35 nm, those with the GLE of 100 nm presented 6.3% and 5.7% enhancement in drive current for the n- and p-FinFETs, respectively. It was attributed to the effective transverse-tensile-stress transfer from gate to the Si-fin channel. Furthermore, as the fin numbers increased from 1 to 10, the degradation in the saturation current of the devices with the GLE of 100 nm, resulting from the neighboring gates, relaxed the transverse tensile strain in the channel to 3.9% and 3.6% for n- and p-FinFETs, respectively.