English

2D Canonical Approach for Beating the Boltzmann Tyranny Using Memory

Applied Physics 2026-05-19 v2

Abstract

The 60 mV//decade subthreshold limit at room temperature, coined as the Boltzmann tyranny, remains a fundamental obstacle to the continued down-scaling of conventional transistors. While several strategies have sought to overcome this constraint through non-thermal carrier injection, most rely on ferroelectric-based or otherwise material-specific mechanisms that require complex fabrication and stability control. Here, we develop a universal theoretical framework showing that intrinsic memory effects in nanometric field-effect transistors can naturally bypass this limit. Within the Landauer-B\"uttiker quantum transport formalism, we incorporate charge-trapping mechanisms that dynamically renormalize the conduction band edge. The resulting analytical expression for the subthreshold swing explicitly links memory dynamics to gate efficiency, revealing that a reduced carrier generation rate or enhanced trapping activity leads to sub-thermal switching, thus breaking the Boltzmann barrier. The model captures key experimental features and provides clear, generalizable design principles, establishing memory-assisted transistors as a robust pathway toward ultra-low-power and multifunctional electronic architectures.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.24883,
  title  = {2D Canonical Approach for Beating the Boltzmann Tyranny Using Memory},
  author = {Rafael Schio Wengenroth Silva and Soumen Pradhan and Fabian Hartmann and Leonardo K. Castelano and Ovidiu Lipan and Sven Höfling and Victor Lopez-Richard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.24883},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:10:27.993Z