Line Tunneling Dominating Charge Transport in SiGe/Si Heterostructure TFETs

Abstract

This paper provides an experimental proof that both the ON-current <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$I_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the subthreshold swing SS of Si(Ge)-based tunneling FETs (TFETs) drastically benefit from device architectures promoting line tunneling aligned with the gate electrical field. A novel SiGe/Si heterostructure TFET is fabricated, making use of a selective and self-adjusted silicidation, thus enlarging the area for band-to-band-tunneling (BTBT) in a region directly underneath the gate. In addition, a counter-doped pocket within the SiGe layer at the source tunnel junction is introduced in order to sharpen the corresponding doping profile and, consequently, to shorten the resulting tunneling length. Experimental analysis of activation energies <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$E_{a}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> identifies BTBT, dominating the drain current <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$I_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the SiGe/Si heterostructure TFET over a wide region of the gate voltage <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{g}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , thus reducing parasitic influence of Shockley–Read–Hall recombination and trap-assisted tunneling. Both a relatively high <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$I_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}} = 6.7\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at a supply voltage <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{\mathrm{ DD}} = 0.5$ </tex-math></inline-formula> V and an average SS of about 80 mV/decade over four orders of magnitude of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$I_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> were achieved.