Hetero-Gate-Dielectric Tunneling Field-Effect Transistors

A tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET) is considered one of the most promising alternatives to a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor due to its immunity to short-channel effects. However, TFETs have suffered from low on-current, severe ambipolar behavior, and gradual transition between on- and off -states. To address those issues, the authors have proposed hetero-gate-dielectric TFETs. The proposed device enhances on-current, suppresses ambipolar behavior, and makes abrupt on-off transition by replacing the source-side gate insulator with a high-k material, which induces a local minimum of the conduction band edge at the tunneling junction.