On the mobility versus drain current relation for a nanoscale MOSFET

The dependence of the linear and saturated drain current of a nanoscale MOSFET on the near-equilibrium, inversion layer mobility of a long-channel device from the same technology is examined. Simple expressions developed from a scattering theory of the MOSFET provide a quantitative relation between the long-channel mobility and the short-channel drain current. The theory explains the commonly observed mobility-dependence of the linear and saturated drain currents in present-day deep submicron MOSFETs, and the results can be extrapolated all the way to the ballistic limit.