Linear current-voltage pattern, has been and continues to be the basis for characterizing, evaluating performance, and designing integrated circuits, but is shown not to hold its supremacy as channel lengths are being scaled down. In a nanoscale circuit with reduced dimensionality in one or more of the three Cartesian directions, quantum effects transform the carrier statistics. In the high electric field, the collision free ballistic transform is predicted, while in low electric field the transport remains predominantly scattering-limited. In a micro/nano-circuit, even a low logic voltage of 1 V is above the critical voltage triggering nonohmic behavior that results in ballistic current saturation. A quantum emission may lower this ballistic velocity.

François Triozon has been a permanent researcher since 2005 at CEA-LETI, in Grenoble, France. His research focuses on the simulation of electron transport in nanodevices, using semi-classical and quantum methods.

Philippe Dollfus is currently Director of Research (CNRS) at the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Orsay, France. His research activity covers different fields of computational nanoelectronics.