Power efficient transistors with low subthreshold swing using abrupt switching devices

Abstract

With the rapid development of transparent integrated circuits, transistors with extremely low subthreshold swing (SS) is becoming a necessary requirement. Here, we fabricated three transparent device structures that show abrupt electrical switching and make their series connection to the source terminal of the conventional field effect transistors (FET) to lower the SS value. Firstly, we demonstrate an environment friendly, disposable, and transparent conductive bridge random access memory (CBRAM) device composed of a cellulose nanocrystals active layer. Our CBRAM consists of a silver (Ag) electrochemically active top electrode and a cellulose nanocrystals-based switching layer on the FTO coated glass substrate. Devices with CBRAM can enable FET with an ultra-steep slope that is SS < 0.24 mV/dec and has a significantly high on/off ratio (~105) by switching the Ag metallic filament between on and off. Niobium oxide (NbO2) based threshold switching devices and zinc oxide (ZnO) based flexible Schottky diodes that show electrical breakdown were also stacked with FET, which gave SS values < 0.74 mV/dec and < 5.20 mV/dec, respectively. Comparatively, a nano-watt transistor called filament transistor (FET + CBRAM stack) can significantly improve the SS slope value with the lowest leakage current (~nA) and a record low turn on-voltage (~0.2 V) with a set power of only ~197 nW compared to the other series stack, which thereby attracts the attention of low power operations.