Performance Improvement of Poly-Si Tunnel FETs by Trap Density Reduction

In this brief, the tunnel FETs (TFETs) with a polycrystalline-Si (poly-Si) channel have been demonstrated, and the performance of the poly-Si TFET shows a significant improvement by the reduction of interface trap states (N-it) near the conduction band edge. The ON-state current (I-ON) conduction mechanism, band-to-band tunneling, of poly-Si TFETs is strongly affected by the band bending of poly-Si channel. The N-2 plasma surface treatment before the gate dielectric deposition can produce a plasma-induced interfacial layer to reduce N-it obviously, which greatly enhances the surface potential modulation by the gate and improves the I-ON value of poly-Si TFETs similar to 3.7x. The OFF-state current (I-min) attributed to the trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) can also be reduced by a factor of similar to 40%, because of the passivation of grain boundary trap (N-trap) of the poly-Si channel film. Consequently, the ON/OFF current ratio is enhanced from 9.42 x 10(5) to 6.13 x 10(6). In addition, the subthreshold swing, I-ON, and I-min of poly-Si TFET exhibit superior short-channel effect immunity, which shows good feasibility for implementing high packing density of poly-Si thin-film transistors, such as 3-D nonvolatile memory and pixel driving device.