Graphene-on-Silicon Hybrid Field-Effect Transistors

The combination of graphene and silicon in hybrid electronic devices has attracted increasing attention over the last decade. Here, a unique technology of graphene-on-silicon heterostructures as solution-gated transistors for bioelectronics applications is presented. The proposed graphene-on-silicon field-effect transistors (GoSFETs) are fabricated by exploiting various conformations of channel doping and dimensions. The fabricated devices demonstrate hybrid behavior with features specific to both graphene and silicon, which are rationalized via a comprehensive physics-based compact model which is purposely implemented and validated against measured data. The developed theory corroborates that the device hybrid behavior can be explained in terms of two independent silicon and graphene carrier transport channels, which are, however, strongly electrostatically coupled. Although GoSFET transconductance and carrier mobility are found to be lower than in conventional silicon or graphene field-effect transistors, it is observed that the combination of both materials within the hybrid channel contributes uniquely to the electrical response. Specifically, it is found that the graphene sheet acts as a shield for the silicon channel, giving rise to a nonuniform potential distribution along it, which impacts the transport, especially at the subthreshold region, due to non-negligible diffusion current.