Unexpected Scaling of the Performance of Carbon Nanotube Transistors

TL;DR

This paper reveals that carbon nanotube transistors scale differently from traditional transistors, with performance influenced unexpectedly by gate oxide thickness and dielectric constant, supported by experiments and theory.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of CNT transistor scaling, highlighting the impact of device physics and providing explicit analytic scaling expressions.

Findings

Performance depends on gate oxide thickness and dielectric constant

Experimental and theoretical results are consistent

Provides explicit scaling formulas for device parameters

Abstract

We show that carbon nanotube transistors exhibit scaling that is qualitatively different than conventional transistors. The performance depends in an unexpected way on both the thickness and the dielectric constant of the gate oxide. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations provide a consistent understanding of the scaling, which reflects the very different device physics of a Schottky barrier transistor with a quasi-one-dimensional channel contacting a sharp edge. A simple analytic model gives explicit scaling expressions for key device parameters such as subthreshold slope, turn-on voltage, and transconductance.