DTCO study of self-heating effects (SHE) in novel device architectures

Self-heating effect (SHE) refers to the heat dissipation in the device volume due to circuit switching activity and consequent localized increase in channel temperature. It is a growing concern in current and future technology nodes, especially in FinFET, GAA and CFET devices. Firstly, due to the topology of these devices, the channel to bulk coupling is reduced; the generated heat in the device volume cannot escape to the thermal ground efficiently. Secondly, thermal conductivity of thin channel devices is significantly degraded from their bulk value due to increased boundary scattering, thus limiting the heat removal capability further. Finally, with the technology scaling, not only the average, but the peak power density in chips also show an upward trend, making SHE even more critical. SHE can influence aging related degradation (BTI, HCI, EM, ...) by pushing the envelope of the operating temperature higher. In this internship opportunity, the focus will be to capture the device level effects and develop cell level self and mutual heating models with a goal to assess thermal effects at block/module level. This will also aid self-heat aware Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) efforts. Since thermal effects are strongly guided by imposed boundary conditions, care will be taken to apply appropriate assumptions. The localized hotspot dynamics in response to real circuit/system workload scenarios will be studied in more detail. 

Type of Project: Combination of internship and thesis 

Master's degree:  Master of Science; Master of Engineering Technology 

Duration: 6 months

Master program: Electrotechnics/Electrical Engineering 

For more information or application, please contact Subrat Mishra (subrat.mishra@imec.be)

Imec allowance will be provided for students studying at a non-Belgian university.