Full-band quantum transport in nanowire transistors
Luisier, Mathieu
In: Journal of Computational Electronics, 2008, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 309-314
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- Semiconductor nanowires may be the core components of next generation processors and memories. In effect, several groups already demonstrated the feasibility of Si or Ge nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs). However, the fabrication of novel devices is always a difficult and expensive process. The recourse to technology computer aided design can facilitate the development of new structures and help reducing the inherent costs. In this article a full-band quantum transport (QT) solver dedicated to nanowire transistors is presented. The semi-empirical sp 3 d 5 s * tight-binding (TB) method is chosen as bandstructure model for its accuracy to reproduce the bulk properties, for its straight forward extension to nanostructures, and for its atomic description of the simulation domain. The calculation of multi-band open boundary conditions (OBCs) and their integration into a three-dimensional Schrödinger-Poisson or Non-equilibrium Green's Function solver are fundamental in the development of a ballistic QT simulator. Different approaches are investigated and compared in this work. They all allow transport with any channel orientation, material composition, and cross section shape. The computational burden restricts most of them to the simulation of small nanowire structures. However, some advanced numerical techniques open promising perspectives towards realistic devices