B-VDL-TFET: An Ultrascaled, High-Sensitivity Sensor for Breast Cancer Detection

Breast cancer remains one of the most life-threatening diseases among women worldwide, but early detection significantly increases survival rates. To address the limitations of existing detection techniques, this study presents a borophene vertically stacked dopingless tunnel field-effect transistor (B-VDL-TFET) sensor with enhanced sensitivity, ultra-scalability, and low supply voltage operation. The proposed sensor utilises the unique dielectric properties of breast cancer cells for detection and employs the charge-plasma technique to enable junctionless and dopingless fabrication, simplifying the manufacturing process. A dual-gate architecture enhances electrostatic control, while nanocavities below the source metal serve as biomolecule placement regions. TCAD-based simulations are performed to analyse key parameters such as the limit of detection, transient response, and temperature variations. The findings reveal that the sensor effectively differentiates between healthy and cancerous cells based on variations in dielectric constant (κ), achieving a high ON-current sensitivity of 3.2×10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sup>, enhanced selectivity of 12.41 with the T-47D cancerous cell (κ = 32), and strong immunity to noise and charge variations. Moreover, the sensor maintains stable performance under non-ideal conditions, including both uniform and non-uniform biomolecule distributions, ensuring reliability. This study introduces a highly sensitive, low bias voltage, and ultra-scaled B-VDL-TFET sensor, contributing to the development of advanced biosensors for early cancer detection and personalised healthcare.