Characterization and Modeling of Subfemotofarad Nanowire Capacitance Using the CBCM Technique

The experimental characterization of gate capacitance in nanoscale devices is challenging. We report an application of the charge-based capacitance measurement (CBCM) technique to measure the gate capacitance of a single-channel nanowire transistor. The measurement results are validated by 3-D electrostatic computations for parasitic estimation and 2-D self-consistent sp3s∗d tight-binding computations for intrinsic gate capacitance calculations. The device simulation domains were constructed based on SEM and TEM images of the experimental device. The carefully designed CBCM technique thus emerges as a useful technique for measuring the capacitance and characterizing the transport in nanoscale devices.