AbstractIn order to investigate the specifications of nanoscale transistors, we have used a three dimensional (3D) quantum mechanical approach to simulate square cross section silicon nanowire (SNW) MOSFETs. A three dimensional simulation of silicon nanowire MOSFET based on self consistent solution of Poisson-Schrödinger equations is implemented. The quantum mechanical transport model of this work uses the non-equilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) formalism. First, we simulate a double-gate (DG) silicon nanowire MOSFET and compare the results with those obtained from nanoMOS simulation. We understand that when the transverse dimension of a DG nanowire is reduced to a few nanometers, quantum confinement in that direction becomes important and 3D Schrödinger equation must be solved. Second, we simulate gate-all-around (GAA) silicon nanowire MOSFETs with different shapes of gate. We have investigated GAA-SNW-MOSFET with an octagonal gate around the wire and found out it is more suitable than a conventional GAA MOSFET for its more I on/I off, less Drain-Induced-Barrier-Lowering (DIBL) and less subthreshold slope.