InGaAs/GaAsSb interband tunneling FETs as tunable RF detectors

Abstract

III-V based tunnel FETs (TFETs) have attracted wide interest for the promise of achieving sub-thermionic switching slopes (<; 60 mV/decade) to enable continued power-constrained scaling for logic. These same characteristics, however also offer advantages for non-logic applications; in particular, the strong nonlinearity in the transfer characteristics - a function of the energy filtering inherent with interband tunneling - makes these devices attractive candidates for nonlinear analog applications such as high-frequency detection for imaging and sensing, and the input/output isolation afforded by use of a three-terminal device for detection offers considerable advantages for system design, compared to two-terminal devices (e.g. bulky and bandwidth-limiting RF/DC separation circuits are not required). We report here the first experimental demonstration of an III-V interband tunnel FET as an RF detector.