A Semi-Floating Gate Transistor for Low-Voltage Ultrafast Memory and Sensing Operation
Peng-Fei Wang,1*† Xi Lin,1 Lei Liu,2 Qing-Qing Sun,1* Peng Zhou,1 Xiao-Yong Liu,1 Wei Liu,2
Yi Gong,2 David Wei Zhang1*

Abstract:

As the semiconductor devices of integrated circuits approach the physical limitations of scaling,
alternative transistor and memory designs are needed to achieve improvements in speed, density,
and power consumption. We report on a transistor that uses an embedded tunneling field-effect
transistor for charging and discharging the semi-floating gate. This transistor operates at low
voltages (≤2.0 volts), with a large threshold voltage window of 3.1 volts, and can achieve
ultra–high-speed writing operations (on time scales of ~1 nanosecond). A linear dependence of
drain current on light intensity was observed when the transistor was exposed to light, so possible
applications include image sensing with high density and performance.