TUNNEL DIODES

Introduction
A Tunnel diode is an immediate application of the tunnel element. When a
thin insulator is sandwiched between two semiconductors we get a tunnel
diode. Tunnel diode can also be obtained, when the semiconductor is very
highly doped (the doping is greater than No) the Fermi level goes above the
conduction band for n-type and below valence band for p- type material.
The Resonant Tunnelling Diode (RTD) is a quantum well structure
semiconductor device that uses electron tunnelling and has the unique
property of negative differential resistance in its current-voltage
characteristics. For certain applied voltages, increasing the voltage leads to a
decrease in measured current. The IV characteristics of an RTD are shown in
figure below.

Figure 1: IV characteristics of an RTD

Studies
Tunneling diodes (TDs) have been widely studied for their importance in
achieving very high speed in wide-band devices and circuits that are beyond
conventional transistor technology. A particularly useful form of a tunneling
diode is the Resonant Tunneling Diode (RTD). RTDs have been shown to
achieve a maximum frequency of up to 2.2 THz as opposed to 215 GHz in
conventional Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) transistors.
The very high switching speeds provided by RTDs have allowed for a variety
of applications in wide-band secure communications systems and highresolution radar and imaging systems for low visibility environments.

Tunnelling
Quantum tunnelling or tunneling refers to the quantum mechanical
phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically
could not surmount. Tunnelling is often explained using the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle and the waveparticle duality of matter. Pure quantum
mechanical concepts are central to the phenomenon, so quantum tunnelling
is one of the novel implications of quantum mechanics.It has important
applications to modern devices such as the tunnel diode, quantum
computing, and the scanning tunnelling microscope.

Construction
A tunneling element consists of two conducting materials separated by a
very thin insulator as shown in figure. Similarly electron confined to an atom
or molecule and electron bound to a quantum dot also represents a tunnel
element.

Figure 2: Schematic views of tunneling elements with (a) vertical & (b)
horizontal oriented
barriers
By means of band gap engineering one can fine tune the current voltage
characteristics of the tunneling element in such a way that it has a region
with negative differential resistance. Tunnel diodes and Resonant tunnel
diodes are the most common tunnel elements.

Operation
Tunneling diodes provide the same functionality as a CMOS transistor where
under a specific external bias voltage range,the device will conduct a current
thereby switching the device
on. However, instead of the current going through a channel between the
drain and source as in CMOS transistors, the current goes through the
depletion region by tunneling in normal tunneling diodes and through quasibound states within a double barrier structure in RTDs.
A TD consists of a p-n junction in which both the n- and pregions are
degenerately doped (>1019 cm-3). There is a high concentration of electrons
in the conduction band (EC) of the
n-type material and empty states in the valence band (EV) ofthe p-type
material. Initially, the Fermi level (EF) is constant because the diode is in
thermal equilibrium with no external
bias voltage. When the forward bias voltage starts to increase, the EF will
start to decrease in the p-type material and increase in the n-type material.
Since the depletion region is very narrow (<10nm), electrons can easily
tunnel through, creating a forward current as shown in Figure 1. Depending
on how many electrons in the n-region are energetically aligned to the empty
states in the valence band of the p-region, the current will either increase or

decrease. As the bias voltage continues to increase, the ideal diffusion

current will cause the current to increase. When a reverse-bias voltage is
applied, the electrons in the p-region are energetically aligned with empty
states in the n-region causing a large reverse-bias tunneling current.

Figure 3 : IV curve for P-type and N-type

The current-voltage (I-V) curve shows the negative differential resistance
(NDR) characteristic of RTDs. For a specific voltage range, the current is a
decreasing function of
voltage. This property is very important in the circuit implementation
because it can provide for the different voltage-controlled logic states
corresponding to the peak and valley currents.

SUBSTITUE FOR OPERATION

Under Forward Bias
Step 1: At zero bias there is no current flow
Step 2: A small forward bias is applied. Potential barrier is still very high no
noticeable injection and forward current through the junction. However,
electrons in the conduction band of the n region will tunnel to the empty
states of the valence band in p region. This will create a forward bias tunnel
current
Step 3: With a larger voltage the energy of the majority of electrons in the
n-region is equal to that of the empty states (holes) in the valence band of pregion; this will produce maximum tunneling current

Step 4: As the forward bias continues to increase, the number of electrons

in the n side that are directly opposite to the empty states in the valence
band (in terms of their energy) decrease. Therefore decrease in the tunneling
current will start.
Step 5: As more forward voltage is applied, the tunneling current drops to
zero. But the regular diode forward current due to electron hole injection
increases due to lower potential barrier.
Step 6: With further voltage increase, the tunnel diode I-V characteristic is
similar to that of a regular p-n diode. The region between the maximum and
minimum current is called the Negative Difference resistance (NDR) region.

V-I curves at different steps

The I-V characteristics of the tunnel diode are interesting too as it consists of
a Negative differential resistance (NDR).
The important parameters of the I-V characteristics are
the peak current (Ip),
valley current (Iv),
peak voltage (Vp)
valley voltage (Vv) which can be derived from the diagram. The ratio of
Ipto Iv determines the signal amplitudes.

Applications of RTDs
RTDs have attracted a lot of attention and have been researched for almost
two decades because of their compatibility with many conventional
technologies such as high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and metal
oxide field effect transistors (MOSFETs). The high-speed, low power benefits
can now be applied to digital circuit applications.

Logic Gates Using RTDs

Illustration in figure below is used to generate different logic gate operations
such as AND, OR, XOR and NOT.

Figure 4. Logic gate using RTD

The basic gate is composed of a logic element consisting of two Schottky

diodes and an RTD and a latch consisting of two series-connected RTDs. The
gate inputs are in the form of currents flowing through the parallel Schottky

diodes and the series RTD. The logic output is the voltage level stored by the
latch, which is clocked using a two-phase overlapping clock between
adjacent pipelined gates.

Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC)

The useful targets of RTD-based electrical logic gates using RTDs and HEMTs
are not restricted to high-speed FF circuits. Extensive efforts are now being
carried out to construct ultra highspeed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs),
which will be the key devices for future wireless communications in which
analog-to-digital conversion as close to the antenna as possible is
anticipated. By increasing the number of series-connected RTDs up to three
or more, it is easy to construct various highspeed functional circuits based on
the multiple-valued logic.
Recently, multiple-valued quantizers have been developed and IO-GHz
operation have been demonstrated. These multiple valued quantizers can be
applied to the comparators of ultra highspeed flash-type ADC. We recently
demonstrated a 5-GHz operation of a 2-bit flash-type ADC using ternary
quantizers as comparators . Figure 5 part(a) and part(b) show the circuit
configuration of a ternary quantizer and a block diagram of a designed 2-bit
ADC. 2-bit Gray code with RZ-mode output was experimentally obtained for a
5-GHz clock and 400-MHz input signal as shown in Figure part (c ).

Figure 5 (a) Circuit configuration of a ternary quantizer

Figure 5 (b) A block diagram of a designed 2-bit ADC
Figure 5 (c) Output waveforms of 5-GHz clock and 400-MHz input signal

Static Binary Frequency Divider (T-FF)

The edge-triggered and latching properties of the MOBILE can be applied to
various flip-flop (FF) circuits, including a TFF as a static binary frequency
divider. The circuit configuration
of a frequency divider with a DCFL (Direct Coupled FET Logic)- type output
buffer is shown in Figure 6. The core circuit consists of a MOBILE-clocked
inverter, a MOBILE-clocked buffer, and
a feedback loop. These are constructed with only four RTDs and two HEMTs.
The number of devices is about one-fifth of that in the conventional SCFL
static frequency divider. Each
MOBILE is driven by two clocks, CT and its complement CC, supplied from an
external source. The input signal to the MOBILE-clocked inverter is inverted
after each cycle of the
clock, which results in the static binary frequency divider function. Highspeed operation at up to 34 GHz was confirmed at room temperature. A
frequency divider with the SCFLtype interface for both input and output was
also designed.

Figure 6 (a) Circuit configuration of static binary frequency divider

Figure 6 (b) Input and output waveform of frequency divider

CONCLUSIONS
RTDs have allowed us to realize certain applications that will be beyond the
capability of CMOS technology. These low-power, high speed, and small
devices are especially important as we continue to scale down to the size of
atoms where heat and parasitic effects are a major problem. However, in
order for RTDs to reach its full potential, more mature fabrication techniques
are needed. Precise barrier thickness control is needed to insure uniformity
across the whole wafer. Also, the output power of RTDs is limited. More
research is needed to help realize RTD circuits without an amplifier or other
drivers. This will minimize the power and
area of the integrated circuit (IC).Current applications of RTDs with advanced
conventional
transistors have shown that RTDs is very promising for future ultrahigh-speed
digital devices.