Investigation Into Gate-to-Source Capacitance Induced by Highly Efficient Band-to-Band Tunneling in p-Channel Ge Epitaxial Tunnel Layer Tunnel FET

Abstract

The gate-to-source capacitance (C-GS) in the p-channel tunnel FET (pTFET) with a Ge epitaxial tunnel layer (ETL) structure is investigated. The characteristic of C-GS is revealed and studied with various frequencies and temperatures. Due to the highly efficient band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) in the Ge ETL pTFET, the minority carriers for the source can be generated by the BTBT process and can respond with the gate voltage. Therefore, the contribution of C-GS to the total gate capacitance in the ON-state would increase, which results in a decrease of the gate-to-drain capacitance. This property is beneficial to the suppression of the Miller capacitance effect on the TFET-based circuit.