2025/10/28 by Silva, Rafael Schio Wengenroth, Pradhan, Soumen, Hartmann, Fabian +4
#Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.24883
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-Büttiker 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.