Nanowire tunnel field effect transistors at high temperature

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study how the performance of nanowire tunnel field effect transistors (TFETs) is influenced by temperature variation. First of all, simulated energy band diagrams were presented to justify its fundamental working principle and this analysis was compared to experimental data obtained for temperature ranging from 300 to 420 K. This methodology was performed for different nanowire diameters and bias conditions, leading to a deep investigation of parameters such as the ratio of on-state and off-state current (ION/IOFF) and the subthreshold slope (S). Three different transport mechanisms (band-to-band tunneling, Shockley-Read-Hall generation/recombination and trap-assisted tunneling) were highlighted to explain the temperature influence on the drain current. As the final step, subthreshold slope values for each configuration were compared to the room temperature. Therefore, it was observed that larger nanowire diameters and lower temperatures tended to increase ION/IOFF ratio. Meanwhile, it was clear that band-to-band tunneling prevailed for higher gate voltage bias, resulting in a much slighter temperature effect on the drain current.