Through advanced electro-thermal simulations we demonstrate that self-heating effects play a significant role in ultrascaled nanowire field-effect transistors, that some crystal orientations are less favorable than others (⟨111⟩ for n-type applications, ⟨100⟩ for p-type ones), and that Ge might outperform Si at this scale. We further establish a relationship between the dissipated power and the electrical mobility and another one between the current reduction induced by self-heating and the phonon thermal conductivity.
Keywords: Scaling; device simulation; electro-thermal transport; nanowire transistors.