An experimental study on carrier transport in silicon nanowire transistors: How close to the ballistic limit?

In this paper, experimental studies on the carrier transport in silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs) are reported, demonstrating their great potential as an alternative device structure for near-ballistic transport from top-down approach. Both ballistic efficiency and apparent mobility were characterized. A modified experimental extraction methodology for SNWTs is proposed, which takes into account the impact of quantum contact resistance. The highest ballistic efficiency is observed in sub-40 nm n-channel SNWTs due to their quasi-1D carrier transport. The apparent mobility is also extracted in comparison with the ballistic limit, which indicates that the gate-all-around SNWT can really be considered as a promising device architecture in close proximity to the ballistic transport.