Investigation of the novel attributes of a double-gate graphene nanoribbon FET with AlN high-κ dielectrics

•A novel double-gate graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistor (GNRFET) on AlN high-κ dielectrics has been proposed.•It is shown that the high-κ structure achieves higher drain current, on–off ratio, transconductance and intrinsic gain.•Using the high-κ gate material can well confine electric fields within the GNR channel thereby improving electrostatics.•The better electrostatic control results in minimizing short-channel performance degradation.

The use of high-κ dielectrics is an inevitable requirement to continue the historical performance scaling trend. Recently, the electrical transport characteristics of graphene FET on an aluminum nitride (AlN) substrate in spite of other common dielectric materials indicate significant improvement of carrier mobility. This paper proposes a novel double-gate graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistor (GNRFET) on AlN dielectric substrates. More studies exploring device characteristics are included to assess the performance over the conventional SiO2-based one. It is found that the high-κ GNRFET affords larger on current, on–off ratio, transconductance and intrinsic gain. The high-κ structure also provides further immunity against short-channel effects including drain-induced barrier-lowering and subthreshold swing.