Impact of gamma-ray radiation on DC and RF performance of 10-nm bulk n-channel FinFETs

Abstract

In this article, the impact of gamma-ray radiation on DC and RF response of 10-nm bulk n-channel FinFETs is investigated. Firstly, the radiation tolerance of these devices under DC measurement conditions is reported as various layout level device parameters, such as the gate length (LG), number of fins (NFIN), and number of fingers (NFINGER) are scaled. Then for the first time, the impact of gamma-ray radiation on small-signal RF response of the 10-nm bulk FinFETs is reported, which includes some of the RF figures-of-merit (FOM), such as, the input transconductance, intrinsic current gain, intrinsic voltage gain, and unilateral power gain. Furthermore, the effect of device geometry scaling on maximum oscillation frequency, fMAX, degradation due to gamma-ray radiation is reported. DC results show that long channel devices with small NFIN and large NFINGER are least impacted by gamma-ray radiation as opposed to short channel devices with large NFIN and small NFINGER. The RF results show that gamma-ray radiation causes major degradation (∼ 40%) in fMAX, while the cut-off frequency, fT remains mostly unchanged. Finally, an empirical model is developed to predict the degradation in fMAX with changing device geometries and gamma-ray radiation dose.