Compact Modeling of Quasi-Ballistic Silicon Nanowire MOSFETs

A compact model for the quasi-ballistic silicon nanowire MOSFET was developed by supplementing the ballistic framework previously disclosed by us with an original carrier-scattering model. The scattering model considers elastic scattering and optical phonon emission, which is the dominant route of energy relaxation in the device. The quasi-ballistic electric current showed a remarkable decrease compared with the ballistic counterpart. The relative decrease or “ballisticity” gradually improved when the channel length was reduced, but the value remained considerably less than the ballistic limit, even in the limit of zero channel length. The transport physics underlying the device characteristics is discussed.