Analytic model for the surface potential and drain current in negative capacitance field-effect transistors

In 2008, Salahuddin and Datta proposed that a ferroelectric material operating in the negative capacitance (NC) region could act as a step-up converter of the surface potential in a metaloxidesemiconductor structure, opening a new route for the realization of transistors with steeper subthreshold characteristics (S < 60mV/dec). In this paper, a comprehensive physics-based surface potential and a drain current model for the NC field-effect transistor are reported. The model is aimed to evaluate the potentiality of such transistors for low-power switching applications. This paper also sheds light on how operation in the NC region can be experimentally detected. © 2006 IEEE.