The impact of intrinsic series resistance on MOSFET scaling

The intrinsic parasitic series resistance associated with the practical structure of a MOSFET is examined. The components considered include contact resistance, diffusion sheet resistance, spreading (injection) resistance, and accumulation layer resistance. The impact of the total resistance on MOSFET scaling is assessed, down to a channel length of 0.15 µm. The results show that, contrary to what has been claimed before, the transconductance and current of a MOSFET continue to increase as the channel length is miniaturized, although the degradation percentage-wise compared to an ideal device without series resistance continues to increase. Based on the degraded I-V characteristics and their effects on an inverter, it is shown here that for NMOS or PMOS digital circuits, the maximum degradation in speed due to series resistance is 20-35 percent compared to ideal scaling for the shortest channel considered. For CMOS circuits, the maximum degradation is reduced to 7-15 percent. In absolute terms, a loss of speed in either case due to miniaturization of channel length is not expected even down to 0.15 µm.