Low frequency noise performance of horizontal, stacked and vertical silicon nanowire MOSFETs

The low frequency noise performance of Gate-All-Around Nanowire (NW) or Nanosheet (NS) Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) is investigated, taking account of the impact of the device architecture, i.e., junctionless (JL) versus inversion-mode (IM) and process variations for the gate metal. The horizontal devices are characterized by 1/f noise, dominated by the number fluctuation mechanism, so that the power spectral density (PSD) is directly proportional with the trap density in the gate stack. The average 1/f noise PSD is becoming smaller going from single NW transistors on Silicon-on-Insulator substrates, to stacked horizontal NS devices on bulk silicon and, finally, vertical NWFETs with a substrate source contact. At low currents and frequencies below 1 kHz the 1/f noise in the vertical NWs is, in contrast to the horizontal devices, controlled by mobility fluctuations. In these devices white noise is observed above 1 kHz.