Graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors analysis and applications

Abstract

The dimension down scaling capability of the silicon based transistors has produced significant developments in the electronic industry. The channel length reduction has been accompanied by many limitations and challenges in the performance of the transistor. According to the ITRS and Moore law silicon based technology is near to its end, consequently the novel material innovations are needed in the near future. The graphene based material is the promising candidate for silicon channel replacement in conventional transistor. In this paper, graphene, graphene nanoribbons and their fundamental properties such as mechanical, electrical and electronic specifications are introduced. Then, graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor and its modeling and simulation methods are investigated. The best method for device simulation is the self-consistent solving of Poisson and Schrödinger equations under non-equilibrium green's function with the tight binding approximation. In order to investigate the effect of down scaling on the transistor performance, parameters such as drain induced barrier lowering, sub-threshold swing, ION/IOFFratio, and transconductance are studied. Moreover, utilizations of the graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor including circuit-based, high frequency, and biosensors applications are introduced. The results show that graphene based transistors are an excellent replacement to silicon based transistors.