Sub-10-nm Tunnel Field-Effect Transistor With Graded Si/Ge Heterojunction

This study presents a new sub-10-nm tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) with bandgap engineering using a graded Si/Ge heterojunction. Both the height and width of the tunneling barrier are highly controlled by applying gate voltages to ensure a near ideal sub-5-mV/dec switching of scaled sub-10-nm TFETs at 300 K. This study performed a 2-D simulation to elucidate p-body graded Si/Ge heterojunction TFET devices from 50 to 5 nm. The on-state tunneling barrier around the source was narrowed and lowered to demonstrate a high on-current; simultaneously, the off-state tunneling barrier was raised and extended into the drain to control the short-channel effect and ambipolar leakage current. The shorter the length is, the more abrupt is the switching. The breakthrough in subthreshold swing and short-channel effect make the graded Si/Ge TFET highly promising as an ideal green transistor into sub-10-nm regimes.