Role of scattering in nanotransistors

TL;DR

This paper models scattering effects in nanotransistors, revealing that scattering along the entire channel impacts current similarly when channel length is comparable to scattering length, challenging traditional assumptions about source-end scattering.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed model of scattering effects in nanotransistors, showing the non-uniform impact along the channel and invalidating the simple series resistance approximation.

Findings

Scattering in the right half of the channel affects drain current similarly to the left half when channel length ≈ scattering length.

Scattering near the drain is less detrimental than near the source when channel length >> scattering length.

Classical models of extension regions as simple resistances are not valid for nanotransistors.

Abstract

We model the influence of scattering along the channel and extension regions of dual gate nanotransistor. It is found that the reduction in drain current due to scattering in the right half of the channel is comparable to the reduction in drain current due to scattering in the left half of the channel, when the channel length is comparable to the scattering length. This is in contrast to a popular belief that scattering in the source end of a nanotransistor is significantly more detrimental to the drive current than scattering elsewhere. As the channel length becomes much larger than the scattering length, scattering in the drain-end is less detrimental to the drive current than scattering near the source-end of the channel. Finally, we show that for nanotransistors, the classical picture of modeling the extension regions as simple series resistances is not valid.