Drain current characterization of dielectric modulated split gate TFET for bio-sensing application

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical surface potential and drain current model of split gate (SG) Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (TFET) for label free detection of biomolecules e.g. protein, biotine, DNA, etc., utilizing the concept of underlap and dielectric modulation approach. A portion of the device channel is left open in between the splitted gates with a thin layer of silicon dioxide as adhesive layer. This open cavity acts as the binding site for the biomolecules to be detected which alters the effective capacitance of the region and hence modulates the device characteristic trend. The device electrostatics are developed by solving two dimensional Poisson’s equation and Young’s parabolic approximation and consequent drain current is then formulated applying Kane’s model. To assess the sensing ability of the device, both neutral and charged biomolecules with different dielectric values are immobilized within the cavity and the impact of variation in dielectric constant, charge density and height of biomolecules on device characteristics is analyzed. In addition to this, drain current sensitivity of the device is also investigated by varying the permittivity, charge density (both positive and negative) and height of the bio-species. All the analytical results are evaluated with corresponding Sentaurus TCAD simulated data to corroborate the accuracy of the derived model.