Apparatus including resonant-tunneling device having multiple-peak current-voltage characteristics

US4902912A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories · US

Inventors

• Federico Capasso · Westfield, US
• Alfred Yi Cho · Summit, US
• Susanta Sen · Scotch Plains, US
• Masakazu Shoji · Hackettstown, US
• Deborah Lee Sivco · Hackettstown, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 13, 1989
• Grant date: Feb 20, 1990
• Expiry date: Jun 13, 2009

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G11C2211/5614
• WIPO field: Micro-structural and nano-technology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A semiconductor integrated resonant-tunneling device having multiple negative-resistance regions, and having essentially equal current peaks in such regions, is useful as a highly compact element, e.g., in apparatus designed for ternary logic operations, frequency multiplication, waveform scrambling, memory operation, parity-bit generation, and coaxial-line driving. The device can be made by layer deposition on a substrate and includes a resonant-tunneling structure between contacts such that side-by-side first and third contacts are on one side, and a second contact is on the opposite side of the resonant-tunneling structure.