High on/off current ratio in ballistic CNTFETs based on tuning the gate insulator parameters for different ambient temperatures

A theoretical study is presented on the on/off current ratio limits for a ballistic coaxially-gated carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNTFET) with highly doped source/drain regions. Based on changes in gate insulator dielectric constant and thickness, the current ratio has been estimated at different ambient temperatures. Decreasing the gate insulator thickness after a certain value around 3 nm causes the current ratio to degrade drastically. Although the higher dielectric constant values have a fair effect on current ratio, this effect could be suppressed when the device with a low gate insulator thickness works at a low ambient temperature. The simulation results also show that the temperature drastically degrades the current ratio value; whereas in a certain range of ambient temperature, tuning the values of gate insulator thickness and dielectric constant could be very helpful. In this way, the optimum values of gate insulator thickness and dielectric constant are identified to offer the highest on/off current ratio of the device.