Monte Carlo Investigation of Optimal Device Architectures for SiGe FETs

Strained silicon channel FETs grown on virtual SiGe substrates show clear potential for RF applications, in a material system compatible with silicon VLSI. However, the optimisation of practical RF devices requires some care. 0.1-0.12pm gate length designs are investigated using Monte Carlo techniques. Although structures based on 111-V experience show fT values of up to 94 GHz, more realistic designs are shown to be limited by parallel conduction and ill constrained effective channel lengths. Aggressively scaled SiGe devices, following state-of-the-art CMOS technologies, show fT values of up to 80 GHz.