Researchers have recently reported the development of a black phosphorus (BP) transistor that could be used as an ultra-low power switch in various electronic devices. The research team, led by Professor Sungjae Cho of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Department of Physics, combined BP with a thickness-controlled dielectric material to create a unique tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) with considerably lower power consumption than existing ones.
TFETs have been garnering increasing attention from the semiconductor industry as an alternative to conventional metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their lower power consumption. This energy savings has become a key factor in the development of electronic devices, especially ones powered by batteries, in which reducing power consumption leads to extended battery life. However, existing TFETs have a significant drawback in that their driving voltage is high, thereby making it challenging to implement them in practical devices.
To address this issue, Professor Cho's team chose BP, a two-dimensional material with a tunable bandgap, as the channel material for TFETs. They further added a thickness-controlled dielectric material to control the effective barrier height at the BP/dielectric interface, which resulted in a low threshold voltage and high on-current of the TFET.
According to Professor Cho, "Our BP TFET exhibited an on-current value of 82 µA/µm, a sub-threshold swing of 68 mV/dec, and a minimum threshold voltage of 0.3 V, which are the best values among the previously reported BP-based TFETs." He added, "The low threshold voltage and high on-current of our BP TFET make it an excellent candidate as an ultra-low power switch for various electronic devices, including wearable and internet-of-things devices."
The research findings have been published in the journal ACS Nano, and the team has applied for a patent for the technology. They expect their BP TFET to be widely used in various low-power electronic devices and contribute to the advancement of the semiconductor industry.
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