Effects of scaling on the impact ionization and sub‐threshold current in submicron MOSFETs

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of scaling on the impact ionization and subthreshold current in submicron MOSFETs.

Design/methodology/approach

The effects of the various scaling techniques on a 100 nm device performances and the dependence of subthreshold current parameters on applied scaling technique are analyzed.

Findings

The results show that as the channel length is scaled down, multiplication factor increases slowly in the higher regime and rises rapidly in the lower regime of channel length. This result also justifies the inclusion of impact‐ionization effect on subthreshold current. The analysis shows that there is insignificant dependence of multiplication factor on the method of scaling. Similar variations in subthreshold current with channel length scaling have been observed in the analytical results for different scaling techniques.

Originality/value

The paper offers insight into the challenges of MOSFET scaling.

Citation

Jharia, B., Sarkar, S. and Agarwal, R.P. (2008), "Effects of scaling on the impact ionization and sub‐threshold current in submicron MOSFETs", Microelectronics International, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 41-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/13565360810848156