A study of the linearity between Ion and log Ioff of modern MOS transistors and its application to stress engineering

The authors observed that the on-current (Ion) and the logarithm of the off-current (log(Ioff)) of modern submicron MOS transistors tend to follow a very good linear relationship. This paper shall provide a tentative explanation on this experimentally observed linear relationship. Our experimental data show that Ion has a very good linear relationship with drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL). Similarly, log Ioff has a very good linear relationship with DIBL. Thus, the mathematical elimination of DIBL will imply a very good linear relationship between Ion and log Ioff. Finally, we will demonstrate the application of our theory to both n-channel and p-channel MOS transistors with and without tensile stress.