Demonstration of L-Shaped Tunnel Field-Effect Transistors

An L-shaped tunnel FET (TFET), which features band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) perpendicular to the channel direction, is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. It is more scalable than other vertical-BTBT-based TFET designs and provides more than
$1000\times $
higher ON-current (
$I_{{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}}$
) than a conventional planar TFET with the same gate overdrive (
$V_{\mathrm{ov}}$
) of 0.8 V, due to improved subthreshold swing (
$S$
) and larger tunnel junction area. Its temperature dependence, constant
$S$
, and nonlinear output characteristics are discussed.