Theoretical Study of Current-Voltage Characteristics of Electron-Hole Bilayer Tunnel Field Effect Transistors of Different Channel Semiconductors

In this paper, the current-voltage characteristics of electron-hole bilayer tunnel field effect transistors of different channel materials (Si, Ge, InAs) and various geometric parameters (channel thickness, oxide thickness) are modeled and discussed. We show that the structure studied in this work can exhibit very sharp turn-on transfer characteristics due to the quantum-mechanical tunneling as the transport mechanism. The theoretical model is based on the self-consistent solution of Poisson's equation and Schrodinger's equation with an effective mass approximation of the Hamiltonian. Direct and phonon-assisted interband tunneling currents are taken into account depending on the channel materials. We show that channel semiconductor parameters have a crucial impact on the properties of electron-hole bilayer tunnel field effect transistors which results from the fact that the energy band structure of the semiconductor determines the interband tunneling probability and current.