Sensitivity-based investigation of threshold voltage variability in 32-nm flash memory cells and MOSFETs

We investigate variability of a 32 nm flash memory cell and of 32 nm MOSFETs with a methodology based on sensitivity analysis performed with a limited number of TCAD simulations. We show that – as far as the standard deviation of the threshold voltage is concerned – our method provides results in very good agreement with those from three-dimensional atomistic statistical simulations, with a computational burden that is orders of magnitude smaller. We show that the proposed approach is a powerful tool to understand the role of the main variability sources and to explore the device design parameter space.

► We investigate variability of a 32 nm flash memory cell and of 32 nm MOSFETs. ► Our approach obtains similar results as statistical simulations at lower computational cost. ► Sensitivity-based analysis is more convenient than statistical simulations for variability assessment. ► Sensitivity-based analysis can be included in common TCAD tools.