Toward System on Chip (SoC) Development Using FinFET Technology: Challenges, Solutions, Process Co-Development & Optimization Guidelines

In this paper, the impact of process/technology co-optimization on System-on-Chip (SoC) performance using detailed 3-D process/device simulations has been studied for nanoscale FinFET devices. We investigated challenges in FinFET device optimization and scaling while using standard ion implantation process for both overlap and underlap designs. Moreover, an implant-free (IF) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process is discussed for better scalability with improved performance. FinFETs designed using this IF process shows a ~2× improvement in static random-access memory and digital input/ output performance. Additionally, a modification to the IF process is proposed, which further helps in achieving an improved logic and analog performance for overall SoC development.