Design and sensitivity study of a novel Z-shaped gate TFET sensor with SiGe source for chemical analyte detection

Abstract

Abstract In this work, we have designed a chemical gas sensor using a Z-shaped gate tunnel FET with a SiGe source. Here, the gate material is a conducting organic polymer, which allows for the effective detection of a variety of chemical analytes. Over the course of the sensitivity investigation, several chemical analytes were exposed, including hexane, methanol, iso-propanol, and chloroform. Detecting chemical gases is feasible due to the work-function modification of the conducting polymer with exposure to the chemical gas vapors. This leads to modifications in the electrical properties of the suggested gas sensor, which serves as a sensing metric. The impact of surrounding temperature on various sensitivity parameters of the TFET-based gas sensor is also investigated. The proposed heterostructure Z-TFET (ZHS-TFET) offers a peak drain current sensitivity of 5.65 × 105 in the case of chloroform, which is four times higher than the sensitivity provided by the ZTFET sensor. Further, the suggested chemical sensor offers a higher subthreshold swing sensitivity (SSS) of 0.29 and a current ratio sensitivity (Sratio) of 3.18. As a result of its higher-sensitivity nature and improved electrostatic performance, the proposed sensor with conducting polymer as the gate metal may be able to meet the needs of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as environmental monitoring and biological diagnostics.