MOSFET Design and Its Optimization for Low-Power Applications

Abstract

Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) are the basic building blocks of integrated circuits (ICs) and microprocessors. Continuous development of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology is driven and improved by CMOS scaling techniques. This chapter starts with a brief introduction to the importance of MOSFETs in IC design flow. The structure of the device, its types, and its operating principles are then discussed in detail. A high-level study of the short-channel effects (SCEs) produced by scaling and their causes is presented. To suppress the SCEs, a brief history of multi-gate MOSFETs that include double-gate structures, triple-gate structures, and gate-all-around devices and their detailed characteristics are presented. In recent times, the scaling of MOSFETs has reached the physical limits of their size (5 nm). This has raised the need for novel device architectures to replace the MOSFET technology for semiconductor industries such as silicon nanowire transistors and tunnel field effect transistors. The basic working principle of these device architectures, their characteristics, and their low-power applications are discussed in detail.