Publication
Title
Can p-channel tunnel field-effect transistors perform as good as n-channel?
Author
Abstract
We show that bulk semiconductor materials do not allow perfectly complementary p- and n-channel tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), due to the presence of a heavy-hole band. When tunneling in p-TFETs is oriented towards the gate-dielectric, field-induced quantum confinement results in a highest-energy subband which is heavy-hole like. In direct-bandgap IIIV materials, the most promising TFET materials, phonon-assisted tunneling to this subband degrades the subthreshold swing and leads to at least 10x smaller on-current than the desired ballistic on-current. This is demonstrated with quantum-mechanical predictions for p-TFETs with tunneling orthogonal to the gate, made out of InP, In0.53Ga0.47As, InAs, and a modified version of In0.53Ga0.47As with an artificially increased conduction-band density-of-states. We further show that even if the phonon-assisted current would be negligible, the build-up of a heavy-hole-based inversion layer prevents efficient ballistic tunneling, especially at low supply voltages. For p-TFET, a strongly confined n-i-p or n-p-i-p configuration is therefore recommended, as well as a tensily strained line-tunneling configuration. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Applied physics letters / American Institute of Physics. - New York, N.Y., 1962, currens
Publication
New York, N.Y. : American Institute of Physics , 2014
ISSN
0003-6951 [print]
1077-3118 [online]
DOI
10.1063/1.4891348
Volume/pages
105 :4 (2014) , 4 p.
Article Reference
043103
ISI
000341152600067
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 20.07.2016
Last edited 09.10.2023
To cite this reference