Channel size dependence of low-frequency noise in tri-gate silicon nanowire transistors

Abstract

We systematically study the channel size dependence of drain current noise amplitude in tri-gate silicon nanowire transistors (NW Tr.) by measuring a large number of samples with various parameters such as gate length (Lg), NW width (WNW), and NW height (HNW) down to 10 nm. The noise of NW Tr. with WNW < 20 nm rapidly increases with 1/WNW because an electron in a single trap on the NW channel blocks the entire current flow (bottleneck effects). The strength of bottleneck effects is determined solely by WNW not by HNW. The noise increase at narrow WNW is smaller in short-Lg Tr. (down to 15 nm).