Control-gate-free reconfigurable transistor based on 2D MoTe2 with asymmetric gating

Abstract

As transistor footprint scales down to the sub-10 nm regime, the process development for advancing to further technology nodes has encountered slowdowns. Achieving greater functionality within a single chip requires concurrent development at the device, circuit, and system levels. Reconfigurable transistors possess the capability to transform into both n-type and p-type transistors dynamically during operation. This transistor-level reconfigurability enables field-programmable logic circuits with fewer components compared to conventional circuits. However, the reconfigurability requires additional polarity control gates in the transistor and potentially impairs the gain from a smaller footprint. In this paper, we demonstrate a 2D control-gate-free reconfigurable transistor based on direct modulation of out-of-plane conduction in an ambipolar MoTe2 channel. Asymmetric electrostatic gating at the source and drain contacts is employed in the MoTe2 transistor resulting in different Schottky barrier widths at the two contacts. Consequently, the ambipolar conduction is reduced to unipolar conduction, where the current flow direction determines the preferred carrier type and the transistor polarity. Temperature dependence of the transfer characteristics reveals the Schottky barrier-controlled conduction and confirms that the Schottky barrier widths at the top contact are effectively tuned by electrostatic gating. Without the complexity overhead from polarity control gates, control-gate-free reconfigurable transistors promise higher logic density and lower cost in future integrated circuits.