Semiconductor resonant tunneling device with thick layer

Abstract

Abstract A semiconductor radio-frequency power detector comprises, in a stack, an ohmic contact layer, undoped layer of a first semiconductor material, such as GaAs, of thickness l 1 , an undoped layer of a second semiconductor material, such as AlGaAs, of larger band gap than the first semiconductor material, the thickness of the layer being such that transport in the layer is primarily by intraband tunnelling, a second undoped layer of the first semiconductor material of thickness l 2 , where l 2 >20l 1 , and a second ohmic contact layer. The difference between the thicknesses of the layers of the first semiconductor material gives rise to asymmetry in the current density/applied voltage characteristic for the device. An n+ layer may be incorporated in the second layer of the intrinsic first material to reduce "band bending" and to increase the current density.

Inventors

• 👤 Richard T. Syme
• 👤 Michael J. Kelly
• 👤 Nigel R. Couch

Bibliographic Details