A Novel Reconfigurable Sub-0.25-V Digital Logic Family Using the Electron-Hole Bilayer TFET

Abstract

We propose and validate a novel design methodology for logic circuits that exploits the conduction mechanism and the presence of two independently biased gates (“n-gate” and “p-gate”) of the electron-hole bilayer tunnel field-effect transistor (EHBTFET). If the device is designed to conduct only under certain conditions, e.g., when Vn-gate = VDD and Vp-gate = 0, it then shows an “XOR-like” behavior that allows the implementation of certain logic gates with a smaller number of transistors compared to conventional CMOS static logic. This simplifies the design and possibly results in faster operation due to lower node capacitances. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed EHBTFET logic for low supply voltage operation using mixed device/circuit simulations including quantum corrections.

Keywords

• Band-to-band tunneling
• tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET)
• 2D-2D tunneling
• quantum mechanical simulation
• logic circuits