Introduction of Tunneling Field Effect Transistor (TFET) Working and Applications

TFET

The term TFET stands for tunneling field effect transistor, that has been developed in the year 1992 by T. Baba, as one of the capable changes to the conventional MOSFET’s based on numerous performance factors includes Possible for above the 60mV/decade, sub threshold swing, ultra-low power & ultra-low voltage, the effects of short channel, leakage current reduction, speed requirement exceeding due to the effects of tunneling, capability to work on sub-threshold and super-threshold voltage, similarity in the assembly process as equated with a MOSFET. Taking into attention the above factors, the MOSFET could be changed by a potential substitute in terms of tunneling field effect transistor for the purpose of high-speed, energy efficient , and ultra-low power applications in the area of integrated circuits.

What is a Tunneling Field Effect Transistor?

Tunneling field effect transistor (TFET) is a one type of upcoming emerging device. Generally, a MOSFET is used for low energy electronic devices. The structure of the tunneling field effect transistor is almost closer to the MOSFET, but, with different important switching mechanism. The switching mechanism of TFET is done by modulating quantum tunneling through a barrier in its place of modulating thermionic emission over a barrier as in traditional MOSFETs.

This transistor is a three terminal or four terminal device built in Si (silicon). The working principle of this transistor is gate-controlled band to band tunneling and its basic structure is a gated PIN diode. Compared to the MOSFET, it has numerous advantages like apt for low power applications due to lower outflow current, better immunity to short channel effects, sub threshold swing is not restricted to 60mV/decade, greater operating speed due to tunneling, the threshold voltage is much smaller, the current ratio is low off and higher on/off. Thus, TFET can be thought as a capable alternative to the MOSFET for low power and high-speed applications.

TFET Construction

In the last few years there has been a rising demand for the TFET (Tunnel field effect transistor) and researchers are doing a wide study on this transistor. Absolutely there must be a component with the TFET due to which it has involved huge attention of everyone. And here we will give you an overview of the Tunneling field effect transistor.

TFET Construction

The basic construction of TFET is similar to a MOSFET excluding that the both source and drain terminals of a TFET are doped of reverse type. A common tunneling field effect transistor device structure consists of a PIN junction (p-type, intrinsic, n-type), in which the electrostatic potential of the intrinsic area is controlled by a gate terminal.

The TFET device is functioned by applying gate bias so that electron buildup occurs in the intrinsic section. At ample gate bias, BTBT (band-to-band tunneling) happens when the conduction band of the intrinsic region brings into line with the valence band of the P-region.

In valance band, the flow of electrons In the p type region channel into the conduction band of the intrinsic region and the flow of current across the device. As the gate terminal bias is reduced, the bands develop misaligned and the flow of current is no longer flow

After having a wider research and study on the TFET (Tunneling field effect transistor) it can be decided that the source channel tunneling process in doping less TFET can be measured by a gate voltage and the similar idea is also applied in case of other transistors also.

Drain current Vs gate voltage for theoretical TFET and MOSFET devices. The TFET may be able to reach higher drain current for small voltages.

Transfer Characteristics of TFET

Last but not the least the TFET is absolutely protected to random dopant variations and it has been a significant feature for this transistor. The add on point of this transistor is that it does not need very high thermal resources and it can achieve the thermal budget at a very slight one. From the current features of the TFET, it can be detected and estimated that in upcoming a lot work and progress can be expected from this.

Applications of TFET

TFET or tunnel FETS are similar to MOSFETs and applications of these two are similar like a digital switch, etc. The working principle of TFETs is quite different than MOSFETs. In MOSFETs, the flow of current will be due to diffusion phenomenon, while in Tunnel FETs, the conduction mechanism is allied to Zener Tunneling.

The TFET belongs to the family of so-called steep slope devices that are presently being examined for ultra-low-power electronic applications

Because of their low-off currents, they are perfectly suitable for low-standby-power logic and low-power applications which are functioning at moderate frequencies. Other applications of tunnel FETS include ultra low-power specific analog ICs (integrated circuits) with better temperature strength and low-power SRAM.

The main advantages of TFETs include the following

• Having Less SS<60 mV/decade.
• Low power requirement

Thus, this is all about tunneling field effect transistor and its applications.We hope that you have got a better understanding of this concept.Furthermore, any doubts regarding this concept or to implement any electrical and electronic projects, please give your feedback by commenting in the comment section below. Here is a question for you, what is the function of TFET?