Silicon–germanium nanowire tunnel-FETs with homo- and heterostructure tunnel junctions

Experimental results on tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs) based on strained SiGe on SOI nanowire arrays are presented. A heterostructure SiGe/Si TFET with a vertical tunnel junction consisting of an in situ doped SiGe source and a Si channel with a minimum inverse subthreshold slope of 90 mV/dec is demonstrated. An increase in tunneling area results in higher on-current. The in situ doped heterojunction TFET shows great improvement compared to a homojunction SiGe on SOI nanowire design with implanted junctions. Temperature dependent measurements and device simulations are performed in order to analyze the tunnel transport mechanism in the devices.