Electrically variable shallow junction (EJ) MOSFETs with a channel length of 50 run, source-drain distances between 150 nm and 9 mum, and different channel dopings have been systematically investigated by means of 2D device simulation. SOI EJ-MOSFETs with a highly doped channel show a subthreshold behavior similar to the comparable bulk version. By decreasing the source-drain distance down to 150 nm and lowering the channel doping the on-currents of EJ-MOSFETs can be increased by more than two orders of magnitude. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.