Electrostatic gating in Ge-based reconfigurable field-effect transistors

Abstract

Nanoscale Ge has been identified as a promising channel material to enable a reduction of power consumption and an enhancement of the switching speed of reconfigurable field-effect transistors (RFETs). Such multigate transistors allow the run-time switching between n- and p-type operation in a single device. In this work, the specific characteristics and benefits of dual- and triple-independent-gate Ge-based RFETs are discussed by a systematic temperature-dependent investigation of the electrical-gating-related charge carrier transport. While the dual-gate configuration features both a unipolar and ambipolar operation mode, the triple-gate configuration offers bias-independent unipolarity with a symmetric behavior regarding its gating capabilities and on-state currents with an enhanced on-to-off-state ratio by one order of magnitude.