RESONANT TUNNELING DIODE

Introduction
TUNNEL DIODE:
A Tunnel diode is an immediate application of the tunnel element. A tunneling element consists of
two conducting materials separated by a very thin insulator. Tunnel diode can be obtained when the
semiconductor is very highly doped (the doping is greater than N 0) 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

Research 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 quasi-bound states within a double
barrier structure in RTDs. A TD (Tunneling diode) consists of a p-n junction in
which both the n and p regions 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) of the 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.

STEP BY STEP DEMONSTRATION

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 nregion 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 Ip to 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.

1-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.

2-Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC)

The useful targets of RTD-based electrical logic gates using RTDs and HEMTs
(High Electron Mobility Transistors) are not restricted to high-speed FF (FLIP
FLOP) 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. Figure5 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

3-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 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. High-speed operation
at up to 34 GHz was confirmed at room temperature.

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

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

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

PROSPECTS
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.