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A self-consistent and 3-dimensional (3-D) quantum simulator is described for Si-nanowire transistors based on the Wigner function model and multidimensional Schrodinger-Poisson algorithm. The studies have shown that the source-drain tunneling is a major phenomenon related to a scaling limit of nanowire devices, and the semiclassical simulation has measurably underestimated a minimum gate length.

A comparative computational study on the strain effects in Si nanostructures including bulk, thin film and nanowire configurations is described. First principles calculation is used for identifying the bandstructure parameters such as band splitting energy and transport effective mass and it is shown that bulk Si and Si thin films have similar strain effects on the bandstructure parameters under uniaxial strain.

The linear and nonlinear characteristics of electron waveguides with respect to ionized impurity scattering are investigated through the Wigner function model. The waveguides' pertinent parameters and transition probability caused by impurity scattering are represented by using the one-dimensional Liouville equation and the transverse eigenfunctions. Results show that the waveguides' quantized steps of conductance deteriorate with the increase in the total amount of impurities.

We evaluate drive currents and consumption powers of InAs and Si nanowire metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with various crystal orientations, by using a ballistic MOSFET model coupled with tight-binding band structure calculation. We demonstrate that performance dependence on the wire orientation is not significant in InAs NWFETs compared to Si NWFETs, due to an isotropic nature of the \Gamma valley, and furthermore, a lower power switching is expected in InAs NWFETs even if the gate oxide thickness reduces down to a quantum capacitance limit. The present results suggest that InAs NWFETs have the advantage over the Si counterpart in terms of lower power operation and flexibility in layout design of integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]