Energy relaxation of electrons impacts on channel quantization in nano-MOSFETs

The effects of the rising electron temperature due to the energy relaxation on the quantization of the inversion layer in a nano-metal–oxide–semiconductor field transistor (MOSFET) with p-type silicon substrate have been theoretically investigated via self-consistent solution to the coupled Schrodinger equation with considering quantum coupling effects and Poisson equation. The first quantized energy level in the inversion layer rises from 3.6 to 211.4 %, and the total number of the inversion channel electron decreases from 95.7 to 6.5 % relative to those neglecting energy relaxation of channel electrons when the channel electric field increases from 10 to 55 kV/cm. The output characteristic of MOSFET will be largely affected by the energy relaxation when the channel electric field is higher than 10 kV/cm. All these suggest that the energy relaxation of channel electrons should be considered in the modeling of MOSFETs for higher channel electric field.