Hybrid Electrothermal Simulation of a 3-D Fin-Shaped Field-Effect Transistor Based on GaN Nanowires

In recent years, 3-D GaN-based transistors have been intensively studied for their dramatically improved performance. However, thermal analysis of such devices is often oversimplified using the conventional Fourier's law in thermal simulations. In this aspect, accurate temperature predictions can be achieved by coupled phonon and electron Monte Carlo (MC) simulations that track the movement and scattering of individual phonons and electrons. Based on these MC simulations for the transistor region and the Fourier's law analysis for the rest of the chip, accurate electrothermal simulations are carried out on a nanowire-based GaN transistor to reveal the temperature rise in such devices.