Effects of channel-length scaling on In₂O₃ nanowire field effect transistors studied by conducting atomic force microscopy

Scaling effects of In₂O₃ nanowire field effect transistors (FETs) were examined as a function of channel length. The channel length was varied from 1 μm to 20 nm by placing a conducting atomic force microscope tip on the In₂O₃ nanowire as a movable contact. The In₂O₃ nanowire FET exhibited a variety of channel-length dependent transfer characteristics in terms of the source-drain current, transconductance, threshold voltage, and mobility. Furthermore, the authors were able to extract the contact resistance and distinguish between apparent mobility and intrinsic mobility. The latter was corrected, taking into account the non-negligible contact resistance for short channel devices.