Compact Virtual-Source Current–Voltage Model for Top- and Back-Gated Graphene Field-Effect Transistors

This paper presents a compact model for the current-voltage characteristics of graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs), which is based on an extension of the “virtual-source” model previously proposed for Si MOSFETs and is valid for both saturation and nonsaturation regions of device operation. This GFET virtual-source model provides a simple and intuitive understanding of carrier transport in GFETs, allowing extraction of the virtual-source injection velocity
v
_VS
, which is a physical parameter with great technological significance for short-channel graphene transistors. The derived
I
-
V
characteristics account for the combined effects of the drain-source voltage
VDS
, the top-gate voltage
VTGS
, and the back-gate voltage
VBGS
. With only a small set of fitting parameters, the model shows excellent agreement with experimental data. It is also shown that the extracted virtual-source carrier injection velocity for graphene devices is much higher than in Si MOSFETs and state-of-the-art III-V heterostructure FETs with similar gate length, demonstrating the great potential of GFETs for high-frequency applications. Comparison with experimental data for chemical-vapor-deposited GFETs from our group and epitaxial GFETs in the literature confirms the validity and flexibility of the model for a wide range of existing GFET devices.