Semiconductor device scaling: The role of ballistic transport

Nanoelectronics (including nanomagnetics and nanophotonics) generally refers to nanometer scale devices, and to circuits and architectures which are composed of these devices. Continued scaling of the devices into the nanometer range has led to enhanced information processing systems. Generally, this scaling has arisen from three major sources, one of which is reduction of the physical gate length of individual transistors. Until recently, this has also allowed an increase in the clock speed of the chip, but power considerations have halted this to levels around 4 GHz in Si. Indeed, there are indications that scaling itself may be finished by the end of this decade. One aspect of this is the onset of "problems" in device operation, one of which is ballistic transport. In this paper, we discuss the rationale for ballistic transport and how it will appear in device characteristics.