Electrical characteristics of silicon and germanium nanowire transistors - a simulation study

Nanowire Transistors have attracted attention due to the probable high performance and excellent controllability of device current. In this paper, we investigate the electrical characteristics of nanowire transistors made of silicon and germanium materials. The nanowire transistor has a 3D distribution of electron density and electrostatic potential, therefore self-consistent 3D simulations are used. Nanowire (tool) is a 3D Poisson self-consistent simulator which can study the 3D transport in nanowire transistor considering phonon scattering based on the effective-mass approximation. The transport orientation of (100) is considered. The output characteristics, Density of States and 1D electron density profile of the nanowire transistor are studied in detail for both Si and Ge material.