Ultrathin Germanium and Silicon-Germanium Nanosheet Transistors for Runtime Reconfigurable Electronics

Abstract

Reconfigurable field effect transistors (RFET) merge the functionality of p-and n-type field effect transistors at runtime upon the application of a dedicated control voltage. More recently additional functionality, like negative differential resistance has been able to be added to RFETs. Although a higher complexity in steering the devices is given a set of novel circuits and systems has been developed, that not only cope with the signal overhead, but make efficient use of the functionality enhancement to allow for circuit topologies and applications that have been so-far hindered with conventional CMOS. Measures to enhance the device performance and reduce operation power have been identified and predicted by theory, including the replacement of Si channels by Ge and Si<inf>x</inf>Ge<inf>1-x</inf>. The recent advancements and prospects in this field is reviewed and analyzed.