Mobility Enhancement in Strained n-FinFETs: Basic Insight and Stress Engineering

This paper presents both analytical models and Monte Carlo simulations concerning strain engineering in n-type silicon FinFETs. Our analysis identifies the stress configurations and the physical mechanisms able to produce a significant stress-induced mobility enhancement and provides the insight necessary for device optimization. We first derive analytical expressions for the stress-induced changes of the subband minima and of the transport masses, which clearly identify the stress components leading to mobility improvements. Then, we present multisubband Monte Carlo mobility simulations, which confirm the potentials for remarkable stress-induced mobility enhancements in n-FinFETs.