Preface

If you have opened this book, you probably know that the first 3D transistor, the
FinFET, and its adoption by industry for its power and speed advantages have been
the biggest semiconductor news in recent years. The FinFET has been called the most
drastic shift in semiconductor technology in over 40 years.
Because a book reflects the background of its authors, it serves the readers for us
to describe our background. We are two professors and six current or former Ph.D.
students or postdoctoral researchers of the University of California, Berkeley. One of
the professors (C.H.) was the lead inventor and developer of the FinFET. The other
professor (A.N.) pioneered the field of 100 GHz CMOS. All the coauthors are or
were members of the BSIM research group that created the industry-standard FinFET
model for simulation and design of FinFET-based ICs. BSIM planar CMOS models
have been used to design IC products with estimated cumulative sales of a trillion
US dollars since 1997. One may expect the BSIM FinFET model to have a similarly
large impact in the future.
We wrote this book for IC designers, device engineers, researchers, and students.
It presents the what, why, and how of the FinFET and compact modeling; models for
analog and RF applications; and a thorough discussion of the BSIM FinFET model
(BSIM-CMG). We start from the ABC of the FinFET and end with the XYZ of the
FinFET model. Even if you are familiar with BSIM-CMG, you may be surprised to
learn that it can model FinFETs with arbitrary fin shapes such as trapezoidal, round-
corner, cylindrical, and even asymmetrical shapes. It also models FinFETs employing
non-silicon channel materials such as SiGe, Ge, and InGaAs. You are holding the best
handbook for the FinFET model for IC simulation.
We do not claim to have created the equations and model presented in this
book. Many other former members of the BSIM group contributed to the creation of
BISM-CMG. We acknowledge their indirect contributions to this book. Most notably,
Chung-Hsun Lin and Mohan Dunga were the first student developers of BSIM-CMG,
starting in 2004. Other direct or indirect contributors to the book include Walter Li,
Wei-Man Lin, Shijin Yao, Muhammed Karim, Chandan Yadav, and Avirup Dasgupta.
We thank the many industry BSIM users who helped to make BSIM-CMG
a better model for their corporate employers. They did so by testing the beta
model and pointing out its weaknesses in accuracy or robustness during the 2-
year-long evaluation and (uncontested) election process of the standard FinFET
model. The list includes R. Williams (IBM); A.S. Roy, S. Mudanai (Intel); K.-W. Su,
W.-K. Lee, M.-C. Jeng (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company); J.-S. Goo
(Globalfoundries); P. Lee (Micron Technology); Q. Wang, J. Wang, W. Liu

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(Synopsys); J. Xie, F. Zhao (Cadence); A. Ramadan, S. Mohamed, A.-E. Ahmed

(Mentor Graphics); P. O’Halloran (Tiburon Design Automation); B. Chen, S. Mertens
(Accelicon/Agilent, now Keysight Technologies); J. Ma (ProPlus); and G. Coram
(Analog Devices).
Most importantly, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to our families, who
tolerated and made tolerable our long hours in the office and at computers.
And we thank you, dear readers, for giving our book meaning by using it.

The authors