Observation of source-to-drain direct tunneling current in 8 nm gate electrically variable shallow junction metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors

Abstract

We investigated quantum mechanical effects in electrically variable shallow junction metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors with an 8 nm long gate. We clearly observed the direct tunneling current from the source to the drain below 77 K, in good agreement with the calculation. We also showed that the direct tunneling current will exceed the thermal current and will become detrimental to low-voltage operation of MOSLSIs in the 5 nm gate generation.