Microwave detection performance of In0.53Ga0.47As/GaAs0.5Sb0.5 quantum-well tunnel field-effect transistors

作者：Li Wenjun^*; Fay Patrick; Yu Tao; Hoyt Judy

来源：Electronics Letters, 2016, 52(10): 842-U69.

DOI：10.1049/el.2016.0328

• microwave detectors
• indium compounds
• gallium arsenide
• gallium compounds
• III-V semiconductors
• quantum well devices
• field effect transistors
• semiconductor device models
• semiconductor device noise
• microwave detection performance
• quantum-well tunnel field-effect transistors
• microwave-frequency detection
• nonlinearity
• TFET transfer characteristic
• band-to-band tunnelling
• analytical model
• transfer current-voltage characteristic
• voltage sensitivity

The performance of In0.53Ga0.47As/GaAs0.5Sb0.5 quantum-well tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) for microwave-frequency detection is explored experimentally. The strong nonlinearity of the TFET transfer characteristic, which arises from a combination of band-to-band tunnelling between source and channel and gate modulation of the tunnel junction, can be utilised for high-sensitivity microwave detection. Using an analytical model, it is shown that TFET detection current sensitivity is approximately proportional to the second-order derivative of the transfer current-voltage characteristic. Though unoptimised, the large-area TFET detectors evaluated experimentally exhibit an unmatched voltage sensitivity of 112 kV/W, an impedance-matched noise equivalent power of 7.0 pW/Hz(0.5), and a bandwidth of 4 GHz. The microwave detection performance of TFETs can be enhanced by mitigating parasitic effects, improving the semiconductor/oxide interface quality, and scaling the gate area.

• 出版日期2016-5-12