Self-Heating Effects of Vertical Gate-All-Around Transistors: Analysis and Modeling

A compact electrothermal model of vertical gate-all-around (VGAA) transistors is developed in this work. Owing to the structural asymmetry inherent in VGAA devices, the internal thermal conduction of such devices differs from that of lateral gate-all-around (LGAA) transistors. The self-heating effect (SHE) of VGAA and thermal optimization is investigated through numerical simulation, revealing a 53% decrease in the temperature rise by changing the spacer material from SiO2 to Si3N4. In addition, a physics-based thermal model with geometry dependence is demonstrated, which captures the four-stage temperature traces of VGAA and supports technology optimization. The physics-based thermal model was verified through TCAD simulation and was subsequently employed to assess the electrothermal performance at the device-circuit level.