At the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2013) in Washington DC (9-11 December), epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK, Pennsylavania State University and the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are presenting a joint paper on developments in compound semiconductor device technologies for high-speed and low-voltage/low-power applications.
The paper 'Demonstration of InGaAs/GaAsSb Near Broken-gap Tunnel FET with Ion=740μA/μm, GM=700μS/μm and Gigahertz Switching Performance at VDS=0.5V' is being presented at the IEDM conference, which addresses key topics affecting future semiconductor technologies and is attended by an audience including representatives from all the major chip producers worldwide.
The paper reports research leading to the demonstration of near broken-gap tunnel field effect transistors (NBTFETs) with a 200nm channel length that exhibited record drive current (ION) of 740μA/μm, intrinsic RF transconductance (GM) of 700μS/μm and a cut-off frequency (fT) of 19GHz at a source-drain voltage (VDS) of 0.5V.
The work demonstrates the potential use of InGaAs/GaAsSb-based FET technology to produce high-performance devices that operate at very low voltages, offering the low power consumption and high efficiencies needed for the next generation of electronics and communications devices with the ability to operate in highly energy-constrained environments for a wide range of applications that will enable the Internet of Things.
