Semiconductor devices

Claim 1

A semiconductor device, comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a source region and drain region, each formed at the surface of said semiconductor substrate, said source and drain regions each having a potential barrier with respect to said semiconductor substrate; and a gate electrode formed on said semiconductor substrate positioned between said source and drain regions, a region between said source and drain regions having a sufficiently small channel length so as to permit a resonant tunneling current flow therethrough, said gate electrode controlling the height of discrete energy levels of carriers of said semiconductor substrate, wherein a conduction state and a non-conduction state of said device depends on the existence or non-existence of the resonant tunneling current flow between said source and drain regions as determined by said discrete energy levels, wherein said potential barriers are provided by tunneling insulating films formed between said source and drain regions and portions of said semiconductor substrate positioned between said source and drain regions, wherein the thickness of each of said tunneling insulating films is not larger than 40 Å and wherein said tunneling insulating films are selected from silicon oxide films, silicon nitride films and Aluminum oxide films.