Insight into Lateral Band-to-Band-Tunneling in Nanowire Junctionless FETs

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the nature of lateral band-to-band-tunneling (L-BTBT) component of gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) in different nanowire junctionless FET (NWJLFET) configurations for the first time. Although the NW junctionless accumulation mode (JAM) FET has a larger ON-state current compared with the NWJLFETs, we demonstrate that the L-BTBT GIDL is larger in the NWJAMFET compared with the NWJLFET. Furthermore, we explore for the first time the application of a dual-material gate (DMG) in the NWJAMFET to suppress the L-BTBT GIDL. Using calibrated 3-D simulations, we show that the OFF-state current in the DMG NWJAMFET is reduced significantly by six orders of magnitude leading to a considerable ON-state to OFF-state current ratio ( $I/I_{{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}})$ of $\sim 10^{10}$ . Furthermore, the DMG NWJAMFET offers: 1) an enhanced ON-state current and 2) a significantly reduced OFF-state current compared with the NWJLFETs. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the DMG NWJAMFET exhibits a higher transconductance than the single material gate NWJAMFET in the saturation region. In addition, we also show that there is a tradeoff between the off-state current and the intrinsic delay and the cut-off frequency in the DMG NWJAMFET. Therefore, we provide the design guidelines for appropriately choosing the work functions of the dual gates and the ratio of the length of the dual gates to the total gate length.