Impact of TFET Unidirectionality and Ambipolarity on the Performance of 6T SRAM Cells

Abstract

We use mixed device-circuit simulations to predict the performance of 6T static RAM (SRAM)\ud cells implemented with tunnel-FETs (TFETs). Idealized template devices are used to assess the impact of\ud device unidirectionality, which is inherent to TFETs and identify the most promising configuration for the\ud access transistors. The same template devices are used to investigate the VDD range, where TFETs may be\ud advantageous compared to conventional CMOS. The impact of device ambipolarity on SRAM operation\ud is also analyzed. Realistic device templates extracted from experimental data of fabricated state-of-the-art\ud silicon pTFET are then used to estimate the performance gap between the simulation of idealized TFETs\ud and the best experimental implementations

Complementary Strained Si GAA Nanowire TFET Inverter With Suppressed Ambipolarity

“…This parasitic current is a characteristic for homojunction p-i-n structures at large gate-drain voltage Vgd, when the TFET becomes conductive. Suppressing the ambipolarity in TFETs is mandatory to allow full functionality of CMOS logic as reported in [14].…”

Mixed-Signal Hardware Security: Attacks and Countermeasures for ΔΣ ADC

“…The threat model for controllable manipulation of the modulator output bit is described as sending the inverted version of the modulator output bit (or the bit stream) to the digital filter block at any time by controlling the supply voltage of a maliciously sized TFET-based static random-access memory (SRAM) cell [27][28][29] locally or globally. The nodes of the TFET-based SRAM cell can be described as: BL and BL are the bit lines, SO and SO are the storing nodes for the data bit, WR 1 and WR 0 are the control signals for storing logic one and logic zero respectively, V DD and −V SS are the supply voltage and ground respectively.…”

Tunnel FET‐based ultralow‐power and hardware‐secure circuit design considering p‐i‐n forward leakage

“…In recent experimental demonstration, III‐V TFET has achieved ON current of 92 μA/μm with 48‐mV/dec subthreshold swing at a supply voltage ( V DD ) of 0.5 V. With high ON to OFF current ratio and lower subthreshold swing, TFET digital circuits achieve ultralow power consumption and high energy efficiency . However, TFET shows peculiar electrical characteristics such as ambipolarity and unidirectional current conduction . Ambipolarity in TFETs is considered as a serious challenge, and several device‐level optimization techniques were demonstrated to reduce the ambipolar leakage .…”