Silicon and Germanium Transistor Architectures for Next-Generation Logic and Sensing
This community focuses on the physics, materials, and device engineering of advanced field-effect transistors, specifically exploring tunneling mechanisms and new channel geometries to improve switching performance and enable sensitive detection of biological and chemical targets.
The research centers on silicon, germanium, and silicon-germanium (SiGe) materials, with a heavy emphasis on gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet and nanowire structures. Key recurring themes include tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs), negative capacitance effects, and the optimization of gate dielectrics and metal gates. The work also addresses interface traps, Schottky barriers, and work function engineering to control charge transport. While the primary focus is on logic devices for advanced technology nodes, a significant strand of the literature applies these transistor architectures to biosensing, particularly for detecting cancer cells and DNA, utilizing the high sensitivity of the channel to surface charge changes.
This community represents 19.5% of all germanium research, and 14,254 papers here; it accounts for 7.8% of silicon research, with 27,810 papers. The community also includes 6,196 papers on arsenic and 5,707 on gallium, reflecting the use of these elements as dopants or in compound semiconductor channels.
The community comprises 56,729 papers, with the highest publication volumes in the Journal of Applied Physics, Applied Physics Letters, and MRS Proceedings.
Recent work continues to explore complementary field-effect transistor architectures for 2-nm nodes, ferroelectric gate stacks for energy storage, and the use of vertical nanowire tunnel FETs for analog applications and biosensing.