On-current limitation of high-k gate insulator MOSFETs

This work explores the limitation of high-k gate insulator on improving the driving currents of MOSFETs. The use of high-k gate dielectric prevents from the gate tunneling current to have an acceptable EOT thickness in scaled devices. However, the effectiveness of continued EOT reduction is limited by the non-scalability of the quantum effect of inversion layer thickness. Both classical and quantum-mechanical approaches are expressed to describe the physical gate capacitances and the on-state drain currents for studying the influence of invariant inversion layer thickness.