Which effect occurs when silicon dioxide thickness decreases in a MOSFET gate dielectric?

💡 Explanation

When the gate dielectric (silicon dioxide) becomes very thin, quantum tunneling through the potential barrier occurs because wavefunction penetration exponentially increases, causing a significant gate leakage current. Therefore increased leakage results, rather than changes to threshold voltage, mobility, or subthreshold swing, which are linearly related to oxide thickness.

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