Novel Infrared phototransistor based on Junctionless TFET design: Numerical Analysis and Performance Assessment

In this paper, a novel Infrared (IR) sensor based on Junctionless (JL) Germanium optically controlled gate (OC) Tunneling-FET phototransistor is proposed and numerically investigated. An exhaustive study concerning the working mechanism of the proposed device is carried out using 2-Dimuntional ATLAS device simulator taking into account the band-to-band tunneling transport model. The optoelectronic properties of the proposed JL-OC-TFET are also analyzed, where its IR photoresponse, switching and detectivity characteristics are reported. In addition, comparative performance analysis between the conventional OC FET-based devices and our proposed one is carried out by extracting their Figures of Merit (FoM) parameters including responsivity, ION/IOFF ratio and the optical gain. It is found that the proposed JL-OC-TFET outperforms considerably the conventional IR-sensors in terms of the device FoM, offering a high relative improvement exceeding 220%. Therefore, this investigation can offer new exciting opportunities regarding the advantage of using JL tunneling devices for the potential improvement of nowadays optoelectronic systems.