Shrinking limits of silicon MOSFET's: Numerical study of 10-nm-scale devices

TL;DR

This numerical study explores the limits of 10-nm-scale silicon MOSFETs, analyzing quantum effects and electrostatics to assess their potential for logic and memory applications.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed numerical analysis of ultra-scaled dual-gate MOSFETs, including quantum tunneling and electrostatic effects, revealing their operational capabilities at 8 nm channel lengths.

Findings

Devices can achieve transconductance up to 4,000 mS/mm.

Gate modulation exceeds 8 orders of magnitude.

Threshold voltage is highly sensitive to nanometer-scale variations.

Abstract

We have performed numerical modeling of dual-gate ballistic n-MOSFET's with channel length of the order of 10 nm, including the effects of quantum tunneling along the channel and through the gate oxide. Our analysis includes a self-consistent solution of the full (two-dimensional) electrostatic problem, with account of electric field penetration into the heavily-doped electrodes. The results show that transistors with channel length as small as 8 nm can exhibit either a transconductance up to 4,000 mS/mm or gate modulation of current by more than 8 orders of magnitude, depending on the gate oxide thickness. These characteristics make the devices satisfactory for logic and memory applications, respectively, though their gate threshold voltage is rather sensitive to nanometer-scale variations in the channel length.