Proposal for a Negative Capacitance Vacuum Field Effect Transistors with sub-60mV/dec Subthreshold Swing

Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in Vacuum Field Effect Transistors (VFETs) with nanoscale features [1]-[4]. Compared to traditional MOSFETs and FINFETs, VFETs offer advantages in terms of electron velocity, fast switching speed, extreme operating temperatures, and radiation robustness. We calculate the field emission (FE) characteristics of a back-gated nanomembrane VFET making use of the concept of negative capacitance. It is found that the proposed negative capacitance VFET (NC-VFET) has a minimum subthreshold swing (SS) of 34mV/decade, well below the thermionic limit of 60mV/dec at room temperature.