Tunnel Field-Effect Transistors in 2-D Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Materials

In this paper, the performance of tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) based on 2-D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials is investigated by atomistic quantum transport simulations. One of the major challenges of TFETs is their low ON-currents. 2-D material-based TFETs can have tight gate control and high electric fields at the tunnel junction, and can, in principle, generate high ON-currents along with a subthreshold swing (SS) smaller than 60 mV/decade. Our simulations reveal that high-performance TMD TFETs not only require good gate control, but also rely on the choice of the right channel material with optimum bandgap, effective mass, and source/drain doping level. Unlike previous works, a full-band atomistic tight-binding method is used self-consistently with 3-D Poisson equation to simulate ballistic quantum transport in these devices. The effect of the choice of the TMD material on the performance of the device and its transfer characteristics are discussed. Moreover, the criteria for high ON-currents are explained with a simple analytic model, showing the related fundamental factors. Finally, the SS and energy delay of these TFETs are compared with conventional CMOS devices.