In the past couple of years, GaN-based vertical FETs have been explored to complement their potential logic applicability along with its well-known advantages in high-power and RF applications. In this article, the performances of short-channel gate-all-around (GAA) GaN vertical nanowire MOSFETs, fabricated for a possible low-voltage logic application, have been investigated via simulation, assuming the multilevel trapping effects at the gate interface and the self-heating effects. The simulation results reveal that shallow traps at the interface increase the off-state current, the subthreshold swing, and the drain-induced barrier lowering, while deep traps at the interface lower the on-state current and cause the threshold voltage instability. When the gate voltage is higher than the flat-band voltage of the nanowire channel in the saturation region of operation, the mobility degradation, related to the self-heating, becomes significant due to the increased incorporation of the optical phonon scattering.

We investigated the performances of GaN junctionless fin-shaped field-effect transistors (FinFETs) with two different types of gate structures; overlapped-and partially covered-gate. DC, low-frequency noise (LFN), and pulsed I-V characterization measurements were performed and analyzed together in order to identify the conduction mechanism and examine both the interface and buffer traps in the devices. The fabricated GaN junctionless device with overlapped-gate structure exhibits improved DC and noise performance compared to the device with partially covered-gate, even though its gate length is much larger. The LFN behavior was found to be dominated by carrier number fluctuations (CNF). At off-state, the device with partially covered-gate exhibits generation-recombination (g-r) noise on top of 1/f noise. This superposition is correlated with the severe current collapse revealed by pulsed I-V measurements. In contrast, the device with overlapped-gate shows clear 1/f behavior without g-r noise.

We have characterized the total ionizing dose (TID) response of SOI FinFETs, fabricated in two different technologies, operated in 1T-DRAM mode, one with poly-crystalline Si gates and a SiO₂ gate dielectric, and the other with metal gates and a high-K gate dielectric. These devices were programmed using both back-gate pulse and gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) programming methods. 1T-DRAM cells programmed with back-gate pulses are quite sensitive to total ionizing dose radiation, with the memory sensing margin and retention time decreasing significantly with increasing dose. In contrast, the sensing margin and retention time show high tolerance to total ionizing dose irradiation when the 1T-DRAM cells are programmed via GIDL. The sensing margin increases significantly with decreasing gate length for 1T-DRAM cells programmed via GIDL. We conclude that capacitor-less 1T-DRAMs programmed via GIDL are strong candidates for embedded memory applications for ultimately scaled CMOS devices in high-TID applications.