Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Xie, Zhijian Dr.

Abstract

With every passing day, the demand for devices that have higher operating speeds increases. Currently, silicon's transistor size is limited and it has become difficult to obtain similar performance as compared to previous transistors. The silicon transistor design has changed from a planar geometry to an FINFET design, which allows dimensions to be scaled further while achieving similar performance. Even with this change in geometry, silicon will reach its scalable limit. With such a high demand for faster operational devices, the limitation of silicon will only be able to support the next generation transistors, and then a new type of transistor will be needed. Here is where the GBFET will have the potential to be next in line for chip makers to use in their design. The attractive feature of this transistor is its high performance, which exceeds that of current silicon transistors. Through steady evolution, the simulation of physics based research has become more acceptable. This is due to the ability that simulations offer to produce a sense of confidence that an idea has the capability to work. For this thesis, COMSOL is used to simulate a graphene based Field-Effect Transistor (GBFET) to demonstrate the ability that this design can work and what performance can be expected. Within COMSOL there exists a semiconductor module that allows the user to characterize the electron concentration, hole concentration, electric potential, and other important factors needed to determine performance. This makes COMSOL a good fit for the simulation of the graphene based transistor.

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