What is Velocity saturation?

Under strong electric fields, carrier drift velocity stops increasing in proportion to the field and levels off at about 1×10⁷ cm/s. In short-channel MOSFETs it makes drain current smaller than the square law predicts.

Field: MOSFET

Velocity saturation in the explanations

Questions that mention Velocity saturation (4)

  1. What is the drift velocity of electrons with a mobility of 1000 cm²/V·s in an electric field of 100 V/cm?
  2. What happens to the drift velocity of electrons in silicon when a strong electric field is applied?
  3. When a long-channel MOSFET operates in the saturation region, the drain current ID is roughly proportional to what? (VGS: gate-source voltage, Vth: threshold voltage)
  4. What is the condition for a long-channel nMOSFET to operate in the saturation region? (Assume VGS > Vth.)

Related terms

Mobility Saturation region GaAs (gallium arsenide) Threshold voltage Body effect Channel-length modulation CMOS DIBL Flat-band voltage GIDL (gate-induced drain leakage)

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