Deeper Insights of the Conduction Mechanisms in a Vacuum SOI Nanotransistor

Abstract

This paper presents new work regimes accompanied by specific conduction models of an SOI nanotransistor with a vacuum cavity. The tunneling mechanisms are separately explored to find out the dominant mechanism. Afterward, the simulations show for the first time two firms on and off states under the gate command. Strong and weak tunneling regimes are emphasized. For the first time, a quasi-saturation region of the $I_{D}$ – $V_{\mathrm {\mathrm {DS}}}$ curves is obtained for $V_{\mathrm {\mathrm {DS}}}> 6$ V. Different device structures are compared. The best configuration has the swing of 290 mV/decade, threshold voltage of −0.5 V and maximum $I_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}/I_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}$ ratio of $10^{\mathrm {\mathrm {10}}}$ , which is a real gain among the vacuum transistors. Some applications as vacuum diode, switch under the gate command or action as parasitic device are emphasized.