We investigate the shortening of the gate-length in submicrometric and nanometric field-effect transistors as a powerful tool to improve their self-oscillations performances in the terahertz frequency region due to the appearance of the Dyakonov-Shur instability. The theoretical model is based on the numerical solution of hydrodynamic equations for the electron transport in FETs/HEMTs channels. We show that a decrease of the gate length allows, on the one hand, to increase the intrinsic resonant frequencies near 1 THz and, on the other hand, to improve the conditions for the onset of the Dyakonov-Shur instability and related phenomena. The small-signal characteristics calculated under constant drain-voltage operation are compared with the drain-voltage self-oscillations calculated under constant drain-current operation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.