Chemical modulation of conducting polymer gate electrode work function based double gate Mg2Si TFET for gas sensing applications

This work proposes a gas sensor device structure based on conducting polymer (CP) gate and magnesium silicide source heterojunction FET (MSH-DG-TFET) to sense gases such as hexane, methanol, isopropanol, dichloromethane and chloroform. Source material engineering is implemented in the proposed device MSH-DG-TFET to attain higher ON state current at low threshold voltage with reduced subthreshold swing. The working principle of this sensor is the modulation of work function of the sensing element on exposure to gas vapors. With this effect in place, proposed sensor has been investigated for sensitivity against drain current variations and stability over a broad temperature range of 200-400 K for all the gases. Impact of the gate oxide thickness from 2 to 4 nm owing to NONLOCAL intraband tunneling rate on the transfer characteristics of the device has also been investigated in detail. Results reveal that the proposed MSH-DG-TFET gas sensor can be used for analyte gas detection with high sensitivity and reliability in most of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, where these gases are frequently used.

Automated summary

This study proposes a gas sensor device structure based on conducting polymer gate and magnesium silicide source heterojunction FET, which can detect the presence of commonly used gases. Experimental results show that the sensor can reliably and sensitively detect gases over a wide temperature range.