A computational study on the device performance of graphene nanoribbon heterojunction tunneling FETs based on bandgap engineering

Abstract

Novel device structures and electronic materials are required to further enhance the performance of digital circuits after the current MOSFET technology reaches its physical limits. While tunneling mechanism degrades the short channel MOSFET performance, it can be utilized as the major device operation in tunneling field-effect transistors (TFET) with promising features such as lower sub-threshold swing and OFF-state current (IOFF). Furthermore, semiconducting graphene nanoribbon (GNR) has been proposed as a potential electronic material for TFET application due to its unique properties such as ultra-thin body structure and high carrier mobility. A small bandgap (EG) material near the source-channel interface can be introduced to form heterojunction (HJ) which leads to a larger ION [1–3]. Therefore, in this work, we investigate the impact of the length and EG of this HJ region on the device performance of graphene nanoribbon TFET.