Effect of Band-to-Band Tunneling on Junctionless Transistors

We evaluate the impact of band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) on the characteristics of n-channel junctionless transistors (JLTs). A JLT that has a heavily doped channel, which is fully depleted in the off state, results in a significant band overlap between the channel and drain regions. This overlap leads to a large BTBT of electrons from the channel to the drain in n-channel JLTs. This BTBT leads to a nonnegligible increase in the off-state leakage current, which needs to be understood and alleviated. In the case of n-channel JLTs, tunneling of electrons from the valence band of the channel to the conduction band of the drain leaves behind holes in the channel, which would raise the channel potential. This triggers a parasitic bipolar junction transistor formed by the source, channel, and drain regions induced in a JLT in the off state. Tunneling current is observed to be a strong function of the silicon body thickness and doping of a JLT. We present guidelines to optimize the device for high on-to-off current ratio. Finally, we compare the off-state leakage of bulk JLTs with that of silicon-on-insulator JLTs.