[paper] Surface-Potential-Based Compact Modeling

M. Miura-Mattausch, T. Iizuka, H. Kikuchihara, H. J. Mattausch, and S. Saha

Evolution of Surface-Potential-Based Compact Modeling

IEEE EDS NEWSLETTER

OCTOBER 2023 VOL. 30, NO. 4 ISSN: 1074 1879

Abstract: Conventionally, a compact model of an electronic device is developed for utilization in circuit simulation. This means that the main task of the compact model is to accurately describe the characteristics of a device as a function of the applied voltages by simple equations in order to predict the performance of circuits using this device with sufficient precision. This overview article focuses on the compact modeling of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)-device structure, which has the largest variety of applications. However, the modeling methodology is valid for any type of transistor or electronic device. The development of the compact modeling approach, based on the potential distribution induced within a transistor, is reviewed. The purpose of a compact model is to describe the transistor characteristics in a simple but accurate way, to enable correct circuit-performance prediction. Therefore, the basic physics of observed phenomena must be modeled by simplified and yet physically correct equations. To meet such requirements, potential-based modeling is a natural fit. A compact model and TCAD are both based on the same transistor equations. The difference is that TCAD considers the distribution of all physical quantities within a device, and a compact model integrates these distributions to calculate transistor characteristics at its nodes. The shortcomings of resulting simplifications, introduced for analytical integration, can be examined using TCAD, to identify observed phenomena still missing in the compact modeling. In this way, compact modeling is performed by learning from measurements macroscopically and from TCAD microscopically.

Fig: Schematic of a HV LDMOS FET (top) 

and its potential distribution (bottom)