Applications of a ZnO–Te Antiambipolar Switch for Drastic Power and Area Scaling

Combinations of n- and p-type semiconductors (with thicknesses of a few nanometers or ultrathin) deposited at low temperatures are creating new opportunities for novel devices and circuits. We demonstrate an antiambipolar switch (AAS) device using a heterojunction comprising extremely thin ZnO and Te layers operating at a complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible bias (∼1.2 V) with a high peak-to-valley ratio (∼10⁴). The entire process was performed at a full wafer scale with a low thermal budget at temperatures below 150 °C. The device count and area of the binary-to-ternary converter designed with this device were reduced by ∼95% and ∼97%, respectively. In addition, we demonstrate a few examples of binary–ternary logic circuits to show that the system complexity and computing efficiency of the binary CMOS architecture can be dramatically improved by easily cointegrating the ZnO–Te AAS-based converter in the back-end-of-line structure.