Performance limit of parallel electric field tunnel FET and improvement by modified gate and channel configurations

Abstract

The performance of parallel electric field tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), in which band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) was initiated in-line to the gate electric field, was evaluated. The TFET was fabricated by inserting a parallel-plate tunnel capacitor between heavily doped source wells and gate insulators. Analysis using a distributed-element circuit model indicated there should be a limit of the drain current caused by the self-voltage-drop effect in the ultrathin channel layer. We also propose a scheme to improve the performance of the TFETs by modification of the gate and channel configurations.