Simulation and modeling of self-switching devices

A new type of nanometer scale nonlinear device, called self-switching device (SSD) is realized by tailoring the boundary of a narrow semiconductor channel to break its symmetry. An applied voltage V not only changes the potential profile along the channel direction, but also either widens or narrows the effective channel width depending on the sign of V. This results in a strongly nonlinear I-V characteristic, resembling that of a conventional diode. Because the structure resembles a diode-connected FET (gate and drain shorted), we have modeled the device as a sideways turned FET, so that the trench width t corresponds to insulator thickness t_ox and conducting layer thickness Z (inside the semiconductor!) corresponds to channel width W.