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Germanium-source L-shaped TFET with dual in-line tunneling junction

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a Si/Ge heterojunction TFET with two in-line tunneling junctions to enhance the low on-state current of TFETs, which is their main drawback. The device, named GL-TFET, has an L-shaped architecture with two bottom and side Ge-source regions and an S-shaped gate to enhance the electric field in the device channel. Tunneling of electrons happens in two vertical and horizontal directions from bottom source and side source, respectively, both perpendicular to the gate, and leads to a remarkably high on-state current of 569µA/µm at 0.5 V operating voltage, which is a new record. Our TFET shows sub-60 mV/dec point subthreshold swing over 10 decades of drain current and average subthreshold swing of 11.6 mV/dec, while owing to its geometrical design, no ambipolar conduction is observed in the transfer characteristics. In addition to the switching performance of the proposed device, the analog and RF characteristics are also investigated and a cut-off frequency of 148 GHz is recorded. The performance evaluation is carried out using a calibrated numerical device simulator.

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source region

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source region a, and doping concentration of channel region b, on the transfer characteristics of the device

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  1. Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, 35131-19111, Iran

    Iman Chahardah Cherik & Saeed Mohammadi

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  1. Iman Chahardah Cherik
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Chahardah Cherik, I., Mohammadi, S. Germanium-source L-shaped TFET with dual in-line tunneling junction. Appl. Phys. A 127, 525 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04677-5

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