A comprehensive review on microwave FinFET modeling for progressing beyond the state of art

FinFET is a multiple-gate silicon transistor structure that nowadays is attracting an extensive attention to progress further into the nanometer era by going beyond the downscaling limit of the conventional planar CMOS technology. Although the interest for this architecture has been mainly devoted to digital applications, the analysis at high frequency is crucial for targeting a successful mixed integration of analog and digital circuits. In view of that, the purpose of this review paper is to provide a clear and exhaustive understanding of the state of art, challenges, and future trends of the FinFET technology from a microwave modeling perspective. Inspired by the traditional modeling techniques for conventional MOSFETs, different strategies have been proposed over the last years to model the FinFET behavior at high frequencies. With the aim to support the development of this technology, a comparative study of the achieved results is carried out to gain both a useful feedback to investigate the microwave FinFET performance as well as a valuable modeling know-how. To accomplish a comprehensive review, all aspects of microwave modeling going from linear (also noise) to non-linear high-frequency models are addressed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.