Scaling Behaviors of Graphene Nanoribbon FETs: A Three Dimensional Quantum Simulation Study

Abstract

The scaling behaviors of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) Schottky barrier field-effect transistors (SBFETs) are studied by solving the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) transport equation in an atomistic basis set self-consistently with a three-dimensional Poisson equation. The armchair edge GNR channel shares similarities with a zigzag CNT, but it has a different geometry and quantum confinement boundary condition in the transverse direction. The results indicate that the I-V characteristics are ambipolar and strongly depend on the GNR width because the bandgap of the GNR is approximately inversely proportional to its width, which agrees with recent experiments. A multiple gate geometry improves immunity to short channel effects, but it offers smaller improvement than it does for Si MOSFETs in terms of the on-current and transconductance. Reducing the oxide thickness is more useful for improving transistor performance than using a high-k gate insulator. Significant increase of the minimal leakage current is observed when the channel length is scaled below 10nm because the small effective mass facilitates strong source-drain tunneling. The GNRFET, therefore, does not promise extending the ultimate scaling limit of Si MOSFETs. The intrinsic switching speed of a GNR SBFET, however, is several times faster than that of Si MOSFETs, which could lead to promising high speed electronics applications, where the large leakage of GNR SBFETs is of less concern.