Nanoscale field-effect transistors: An ultimate size analysis

We have used a simple, analytically solvable model to analyze the characteristics of dual-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with 10 nm-scale channel length L. The model assumes ballistic dynamics of two-dimensional electrons in an undoped channel between highly doped source and drain. When applied to silicon n-MOSFETs, calculations show that the voltage gain (necessary for logic applications) drops sharply at L∼10 nm, while the conductance modulation remains sufficient for memory applications until L∼4 nm.