In order to detect biomolecules, a biosensor based on a dielectric-modulated stacked source trench gate tunnel field effect transistor (DM-SSTGTFET) is proposed. The stacked source structure can simultaneously make the on-state current higher and the off-state current lower. The trench gate structure will increase the tunneling area and tunneling probability. Technology computer-aided design (TCAD) is used for the sensitivity study of the proposed structured biosensor. The results show that the current sensitivity of the DM-SSTGTFET biosensor can be as high as 10⁸, the threshold voltage sensitivity can reach 0.46 V and the subthreshold swing sensitivity can reach 0.8. As a result of its high sensitivity and low power consumption, the proposed biosensor has highly promising prospects.

A heterojunction tunneling field effect transistor with an L-shaped gate (HJ-LTFET), which is very applicable to operate at low voltage, is proposed and studied by TCAD tools in this paper. InGaAs/GaAsSb heterojunction is applied in HJ-LTFET to enhance the ON-state current (I_ON). Owing to the quasi-broken gap energy band alignment of InGaAs/GaAsSb heterojunction, height and thickness of tunneling barrier are greatly reduced. However, the OFF-state leakage current (I_OFF) also increases significantly due to the reduced barrier height and thickness and results in an obvious source-to-drain tunneling (SDT). In order to solve this problem, an HfO2 barrier layer is inserted between source and drain. Result shows that the insertion layer can greatly suppress the horizontal tunneling leakage appears at the source and drain interface. Other optimization studies such as work function modulation, doping concentration optimization, scaling capability, and analog/RF performance analysis are carried out, too. Finally, the HJ-LTFET with a large I_ON of 213 μA/μm, a steep average SS of 8.9 mV/dec, and a suppressed I_OFF of 10⁻¹² μA/μm can be obtained. Not only that, but the fT and GBP reached the maximum values of 68.3 GHz and 7.3 GHz under the condition of Vd = 0.5 V, respectively.

In this paper, an L-shaped tunneling field effect transistor (LTFET) with ferroelectric gate oxide layer (Si: HfO₂) is proposed. The electric characteristic of NC-LTFET is analyzed using Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD. Compared with the conventional LTFET, a steeper subthreshold swing (SS = 18.4 mV/dec) of NC-LTFET is obtained by the mechanism of line tunneling at low gate voltage instead of diagonal tunneling, which is caused by the non-uniform voltage across the gate oxide layer. In addition, we report the polarization gradient effect in a negative capacitance TFET for the first time. It is noted that the polarization gradient effect should not be ignored in TFET. When the polarization gradient parameter g grows larger, the dominant tunneling mechanism that affects the SS is the diagonal tunneling. The on-state current (I_on) and SS of NC-LTFET become worse.

In this letter, a tunneling field effect transistor based on quasi-broken gap energy band alignment (QB-TFET) is proposed and investigated by simulation method. To offering high on-state current, InGaAs/GaAsSb heterojunction with quasi-broken gap energy band alignment is applied to QB-TFET to improve the band-to-band tunneling rate. Trench gate structure and InGaAs pocket layer are applied to further increase the tunneling efficiency. To suppress the leakage current caused by the off-state tunneling path from source to drain, an intrinsic InGaAs spacer is inserted between n+ InGaAs drain and p+ GaAsSb source. In order to further improve the control ability of gate voltage on channel, TiO₂ is used as the gate dielectric of the proposed QB-TFET. Moreover, the effect of x and y fraction of In _x Ga_1–x As and GaAs _y Sb_1–y on quasi-broken gap tunneling junction are studied in this work. The electrical characteristic change of QB-TFET with different x and y fraction is analyzed. The proposed QB-TFET is compared with other works and shows an obvious advantage on performance. As a result, a large on-state current (I _on) of 921 μA μm⁻¹ can be obtained. Moreover, steep average subthreshold swing (SS_avg) of 4.9 mV/dec can be achieved when I _on = 1 μA μm⁻¹.

Self-powered photodetectors that do not require external power support are expected to play a key role in future photodetectors due to their low power characteristics, but achieving high responsivity remains a challenge. 2D van der Waals heterojunctions are a promising technology for high-performance self-powered photodetectors due to their excellent optical and electrical properties. Here, we fabricate a self-powered photodetector based on In₂Se₃/WSe₂/ReS₂ van der Waals heterojunction self-powered photodetector. Due to the presence of ReS₂ layer, photocurrent is enhanced as a result of the increase in light absorption efficiency and the effective region for generating photogenerated carriers. The built-in electric field is enhanced by a negative ‘back-gate voltage’ along the p–n junction vertical direction generated by the electrons in the photo-generated electrons accumulation layer. Accordingly, the optical responsivity and the photoresponse speed of this heterojunction self-powered photodetector are greatly boosted. The proposed self-powered photodetector based on the In₂Se₃/WSe₂/ReS₂ heterojunction exhibits a high responsivity of 438 mA W⁻¹, which is 17 times higher compared to the In₂Se₃/WSe₂ photodetector, a self-powered current (1.1 nA) that is an order of magnitude higher than that of the In₂Se₃/WSe₂ photodetector, and a fast response time that is 250% faster. Thus the self-powered photodetector with a stronger built-in electric field and a wider depletion zone can provide a new technological support for the fabrication of high responsivity, low power consumption and high speed self-powered photodetectors based on van der Waals heterojunctions.

In this paper, a novel ferroelectric-based electrostatic doping (Fe-ED) nanosheet tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET) is proposed and analyzed using technology computer-aided design (TCAD) Sentaurus simulation software. By inserting a ferroelectric film into the polarity gate, the electrons and holes are induced in an intrinsic silicon film to create the p-source and the n-drain regions, respectively. Device performance is largely independent of the chemical doping profile, potentially freeing it from issues related to abrupt junctions, dopant variability, and solid solubility. An improved ON-state current and I_ON/I_OFF ratio have been demonstrated in a 3D-calibrated simulation, and the Fe-ED NSTFET’s on-state current has increased significantly. According to our study, Fe-ED can be used in versatile reconfigurable nanoscale transistors as well as highly integrated circuits as an effective doping strategy.