Double jeopardy in the nanoscale court [MOSFET modeling]

Physics-based compact short-channel models of threshold voltage and subthreshold swing for undoped symmetric double-gate MOSFETs are presented, developed from analytical solutions of the two-dimensional Poisson equations in the channel region. These models accurately characterize the subthreshold and near-threshold regions of operation by appropriately including essential phenomena such as volume inversion and the dominance of mobile charges over fixed charges under threshold conditions. Explicit, analytical expressions are derived for a scale length, which results from an evanescent-mode analysis. These equations readily quantify the impact of silicon film thickness and gate oxide thickness on the minimum channel length and device characteristics and can be used as an efficient guideline for device designs. These newly developed models are exploited to make a comprehensive projection on the scaling limits of undoped double-gate MOSFETs. On the individual device level, model predictions indicate that the minimum channel length can be scaled beyond 10 nm for a turn-off behavior of S=100 mV/dec for a silicon film thickness below 5 nm and an electrical equivalent oxide thickness below 1 nm.