Robert C. Bowen

Band-to-Band Tunneling in Ge-Rich SiGe Devices

Germanium is one of the promising materials for future CMOS technologies, due to its high carrier mobility and low Schottky barrier height (for PMOS). However, the presence of a small direct gap (in addition to the main indirect gap at the L-point) can result in significant band-to-band tunneling (BTBT), even at low voltages. If not remedied, it is easily the dominant BTBT mechanism. In this letter, the dependence of BTBT on the alloy composition in Ge-rich SiGe is studied using detailed simulation of the bandstructure. It is shown that even a very low stoichiometric fraction of Si in a FinFET results in a dramatic reduction of direct BTBT, much more so than in a corresponding p-i-n diode.