Comparative analysis of SOI and GOI MOSFETs

In this paper, the authors use a full-band particle-based simulator based on the cellular Monte Carlo method to investigate and compare the performance of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and germanium-on-insulator (GOI) technologies. To this end, p-type GOI and SOI MOSFETs of effective gate lengths ranging from 30 to 110 nm are simulated, and their static and dynamic characteristics are analyzed through simulations. The transconductance, channel conductance, current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, and cutoff frequencies are extracted from the simulation results. The results indicate that drive currents are enhanced up to 25% by replacing Si with Ge. The enhancement is not as significant with respect to the unity gain frequency, which is only increased by 13% in the case of a 50-nm MOSFET. Additionally, the I-V characteristics indicate that GOI MOSFETs are more sensitive to impact ionization than their SOI counterparts, and that the channel conductance is degraded.