Self-Heating and Parasitic Effects in Multi-Tier CFET Design

Abstract: In this article, we study the impact of self-heating effects (SHEs) and middle of line (MOL) and back-end of line (BEOL) induced parasitics on multi-tier CFET design, where multiple nanosheet devices are vertically stacked. We analyze and compare the 4-tier CFET design with the conventional 2-tier CFET, using TCAD models calibrated to experimental measurements. Additionally, TCAD simulations are used to model and analyze SHE-induced heat distribution and temperature profiles and to extract the detailed parasitic RC network from 3D models of CMOS inverters designed with full MOL and BEOL interconnects. At the device level, the maximum temperature rise (TMAX) caused by SHE in nFET and pFET devices of the 2-tier CFET architecture is 62 K and 74 K, respectively. Due to the increased distance from the substrate heat sink, the upper-tier nFET and pFET devices in the 4-tier design show higher TMAX of 83.5 K and 98.5 K and more heat trapping in the stacked layers. Furthermore, in the 4-tier CFET-based CMOS inverters, the BEOL-induced parasitic RCs are, respectively, 10 and 6.5 times higher in the top-tier than in the 2-tier CFET-based inverters. In the bottom tier, the corresponding parasitic RC elements are 6.26 and 2 times higher, respectively, than in the 2-tier inverters. Finally, compared to the 4-tier design without parasitics, the propagation delay of the top and bottom tier inverters increases by 10% and 8.2%, respectively, due to the interconnect parasitic RCs. For the conventional 2-tier inverter, the corresponding degradation of delay with parasitic RCs is 37.25%.