We report on DC and microwave electrical transport measurements in silicon-on-insulator CMOS nano-transistors at low and room temperature. At low source-drain voltage, the DC current and RF response show signs of conductance quantization. We attribute this to Coulomb blockade resulting from barriers formed at the spacer-gate interfaces. We show that at high bias transport occurs thermionically over the highest barrier: Transconductance traces obtained from microwave scattering-parameter measurements at liquid helium and room temperature is accurately fitted by a thermionic model. From the fits we deduce the ratio of gate capacitance and quantum capacitance, as well as the electron temperature.
@article{arxiv.1312.2749,
title = {Thermionic charge transport in CMOS nano-transistors},
author = {A. C. Betz and S. Barraud and Q. Wilmart and B. Plaçais and X. Jehl and M. Sanquer and M. F. Gonzalez - Zalba},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.2749},
year = {2014}
}