Low temperature tunneling transistor

US4647954A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Volker Graf · Lambach, DE
• Pierre L. Gueret · Richterswil, CH
• Carl A. Mueller · Hedingen, CH

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 27, 1984
• Grant date: Mar 3, 1987
• Expiry date: Sep 27, 2004

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S505/86

Abstract

The transistor comprises two electrodes, source (12) and drain (13), with a semiconductor tunnel channel (11) arranged therebetween. A gate (14) for applying control signals is coupled to the channel. The semiconductor, at low temperatures, behaves like an insulator with a low barrier (some meV) through which charge carriers can tunnel under the influence of an applied drain voltage. The tunnel current can be controlled by a gate voltage V.sub.G which modifies the barrier height between source and drain thereby changing the tunnel probability.