A novel method using the charge pumping technique for extracting the effective channel length of MOSFET devices is presented, in which the effective area approach is used and the edges of the area are defined clearly. It is shown that the extracted effective channel length is independent of the measuring biases and the proposed new method is simple, accurate, and reliable, as compared to those using the I-V method. With the knowledge of the device dopant profiles, the extracted channel length with 0.01 pm accuracy can he achieved. Moreover, the proposed method is applicable to either n-or p-channel, conventional or LDD, surface or buried channel MOSFET's.