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Prospects of Hysteresis-Free Abrupt Switching (0 mV/decade) in Landau Switches.
- Source :
-
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices . Dec2013, Vol. 60 Issue 12, p4269-4276. 8p. - Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- The sub-threshold swing (S) defines the sharpness of ON-OFF switching of a field effect transistor (FET), with S=0 corresponding to abrupt switching characteristics. While thermodynamics dictate S\geq 60~mV/decade for classical FETs, a new class of switches which we call “Landau switches” e.g., suspended gate FET (SG-FET) and ferroelectric FET (FE-FET) use inherently unstable (negative capacitance) gate insulators to achieve abrupt switching. Unfortunately, S=0 switching in Landau switches is always achieved at the expense of an intrinsic hysteresis, making them unsuitable for low-power applications. The fundamental question therefore is: under what conditions, hysteresis-free abrupt switching can be achieved in a Landau switch? In this paper, we first provide an intuitive classification of all semiconductor FETs in terms of their energy landscapes and identify a two-well energy landscape as the characteristic feature of all Landau switches. We then use the SG-FET as an illustrative example to conclude that a flat energy landscape is essential for hysteresis-free abrupt switching. In contrast, a hysteresis-free smooth switching (S\leq 60~mV/decade) is less restrictive, and is obtained by stabilizing the unstable gate insulator in its negative capacitance regime. Our conclusions have broad implications for the analysis and design of ultralow power sub-60 mV/decade switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00189383
- Volume :
- 60
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 92520657
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2013.2286997