SymFET: A Proposed Symmetric Graphene Tunneling Field-Effect Transistor

In this paper, an analytical model for calculating the channel potential and current-voltage characteristics in a symmetric tunneling field-effect transistor (SymFET) is presented. The current in a SymFET flows by tunneling from an n-type graphene layer to a p-type graphene layer. A large current peak occurs when the Dirac points are aligned at a particular drain-to-source bias
V
_DS
. Our model shows that the current of the SymFET is very weakly dependent on temperature. The resonant current peak is controlled by chemical doping and applied gate bias. The on/off ratio increases with graphene coherence length and doping. The symmetric resonant peak is a good candidate for high-speed analog applications and can enable digital logic similar to the BiSFET. Our analytical model also offers the benefit of permitting simple analysis of features such as the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the resonant peak and higher order harmonics of the nonlinear current. The SymFET takes advantage of the perfect symmetry of the band structure of 2-D graphene, a feature that is not present in conventional semiconductors.