The impact of scaling laws on the choice of n-channel or p-channel for MOS VLSI

Circuit requirements of scaled devices based on noise margin, parameter variation, parasitic resistance and drift velocity saturation lead to non-constant field scaling, which predict a maximum in performance as devices are scaled. This maximum occurs at a smaller length for p-channel than for n-channel for a given scaling rule, and causes the performance of the two to approach each other at L<0.3µm. The p-channel devices under these conditions are shown to be 100x less effected by hot carriers induced reliability problems than n-channel devices.