Use of Negative Capacitance to Provide Voltage Amplification for Low Power Nanoscale Devices

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• 作者：Sayeef Salahuddin ; Supriyo Datta
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：February 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：8
• 期：2
• 页码：405 - 410
• 全文大小：124K
• 年卷期：v.8,no.2(February 2008)
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

It is well-known that conventional field effect transistors (FETs) require a change in the channel potential of at least 60 mV at 300 K to effecta change in the current by a factor of 10, and this minimum subthreshold slope S puts a fundamental lower limit on the operating voltage andhence the power dissipation in standard FET-based switches. Here, we suggest that by replacing the standard insulator with a ferroelectricinsulator of the right thickness it should be possible to implement a step-up voltage transformer that will amplify the gate voltage thus leadingto values of S lower than 60 mV/decade and enabling low voltage/low power operation. The voltage transformer action can be understoodintuitively as the result of an effective negative capacitance provided by the ferroelectric capacitor that arises from an internal positive feedbackthat in principle could be obtained from other microscopic mechanisms as well. Unlike other proposals to reduce S, this involves no changein the basic physics of the FET and thus does not affect its current drive or impose other restrictions.