J. Cent. South Univ. (2017) 24: 2572−2581
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-017-3671-x
Impact of low/high-κ spacer–source overlap on characteristics of
tunnel dielectric based tunnel field-effect transistor
JIANG Zhi(蒋智), ZHUANG Yi-qi(庄奕琪), LI Cong(李聪), WANG Ping(王萍), LIU Yu-qi(刘予琪)
School of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
© Central South University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017
Abstract: The effects of low-κ and high-κ spacer were investigated on the novel tunnel dielectric based tunnel field-effect transistor
(TD-FET) mainly based upon ultra-thin dielectric direct tunneling mechanism. Drive currents consist of direct tunneling current and
band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) current. Meanwhile, tunneling position of the TD-FET differs from conventional tunnel-FET in
which the electron and hole tunneling occur at intermediate rather than surface in channel (or source-channel junction under gate
dielectric). The 2-D nature of TD-FET current flow is also discussed that the on-current is degraded with an increase in the spacer
width. BTBT current will not begin to play part in tunneling current until gate voltage is 0.2 V. We clearly identify the influence of
the tunneling dielectric layer and spacer electrostatic field on the device characteristics by numerical simulations. The inserted Si
3
N
4
tunnel layer between P+ region and N+ region can significantly shorten the direct and band-to-band tunneling path, so a reduced
subthreshold slope (S
S
) and a high on-current can be achieved. Above all the ambipolar current is effectively suppressed, thus
reducing off-current. TD-FET demonstrates excellent performance for low-power applications.
Key words: tunnel dielectric based tunnel field-effect transistor; tunnel field-effect transistor band-to-band tunneling; tunneling
dielectric layer; subthreshold slope; off-current; on-current
1 Introduction
With the recent demonstrations of sub-60
mV/decade subthreshold slope (SS) and tunnel
field-effect transistor (TFET) like low off-currents at
room temperature, TFET has gained intensely
investigation for low-power applications [1–8]. The
demonstrated TFET devices have smaller bulk
geometries than metal oxide semiconductor field-effect
transistor (MOSFET), the configurations of TFET
usually are ultra-thin body (body thickness <10 nm) and
double gate [9–16]. Instead of applying the electric field,
the drive current is generated by carriers tunneling from
the valence or conduction band at the upper point in
channel. So, TFET devices can overcome 60 mV/decade
limit. However, many experimental results have
illustrated that TFET devices suffer from severe
ambipolar current and poor drive current [17–20].
In order to improve its on-current and suppress its
ambipolar current, tunnel dielectric based tunnel field-
effect transistor (TD-FET) and high-κ gate dielectric
were reported by using Si
3
N
4
dielectric between P+
region and N+ region [21]. In this brief, TD-FET with
ultra-thin body, high-κ gate dielectric and dielectric
tunnel layer are proposed to enhance the on-current,
suppress the ambipolar current, and obtain a smaller
subthreshold slope.
Although a very promising TD-FET structure has
many advantages, it is still not clear about direct
tunneling and BTBT impact output characteristics. To
understand the TD-FET device operation, a detailed
investigation on the impact of spacer–source overlap and
electron–hole barrier tunneling (eBT and hBT) on tunnel
layer electrostatic field and tunneling current is made. In
this work, the influence of spacer and tunnel dielectric
layer on tunneling current is clearly explained.
2 Devices structure and physical models
The devices analyzed in this work are TD-FETs
built as double gate and P+-dielectric-N+. In contrast, the
structures of conventional TFET and TD-FET are
identical, including doping concentrations and geometry.
But in spacer of TD-FET analysis, a low-κ dielectric
spacer and a high-κ dielectric spacer are the only
difference, as shown in Fig. 1. A uniform doping profile
is used for N
+
and P
+
regions; the N
+
doped (1×10
19
cm
–3
)
zone serves as drain and the P
+
doped (1×10
19
cm
–3
) zone
serves as source (For TFET, channel doping is
Foundation item: Projects(61574109, 61204092) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
Received date: 2016−02−29; Accepted date: 2016−10−08
Corresponding author: JIANG Zhi, PhD; Tel: +86−18984255877; E-mail: zjiang@xidian.edu.cn