Tunnel diode

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Tunnel diode

1N3716 tunnel diode (with 0.1" jumper for scale)

Type Passive

Working principle Quantum mechanical effect called

tunneling

Invented Leo Esaki

Yuriko Kurose[1]
Takashi Suzuki[2][3]

First production Sony

Pin configuration anode and cathode

Electronic symbol
10mA germanium tunnel diode mounted in test fixture of Tektronix 571 curve tracer

A tunnel diode or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor that is capable of very fast operation, well into the
microwave frequency region, made possible by the use of the quantum mechanical effect called tunneling.

It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki, Yuriko Kurose and Takashi Suzuki when they were working at Tokyo
Tsushin Kogyo, now known as Sony.[1][2][3][4] In 1973 Esaki received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Brian
Josephson, for discovering the electron tunneling effect used in these diodes. Robert Noyce independently came up
with the idea of a tunnel diode while working for William Shockley, but was discouraged from pursuing it.[5]

These diodes have a heavily doped pn junction that is about 10 nm (100 ) wide. The heavy doping results in a
broken band gap, where conduction band electron states on the n-side are more or less aligned with valence band
hole states on the p-side.

Tunnel diodes were first manufactured by Sony in 1957[6] followed by General Electric and other companies from
about 1960, and are still made in low volume today.[7] Tunnel diodes are usually made from germanium, but can also
be made from gallium arsenide and silicon materials. They are used in frequency converters and detectors.[8] They
have negative differential resistance in part of their operating range, and therefore are also used as oscillators,
amplifiers, and in switching circuits using hysteresis.

Figure 6: 812 GHz tunnel diode amplifier, circa 1970

In 1977, the Intelsat V satellite receiver used a microstrip tunnel diode amplifier (TDA) front-end in the 14 to
15.5 GHz frequency band. Such amplifiers were considered state-of-the-art, with better performance at high
frequencies than any transistor-based front end.[9] In 2013 the NEE-01 Pegaso and NEE-02 Krysaor satellites used
power management modules based on a series of tunnel diodes to fast switch between solar powered operation and
battery powered operation replacing otherwise very complex electronics with a few devices.[10]

The highest frequency room-temperature solid-state oscillators are based on the resonant-tunneling diode (RTD).[11]
Another type of tunnel diode is a metalinsulatormetal (MIM) diode, but its present application appears to be
limited to research environments due to inherent sensitivities.[12] There is also a metalinsulatorinsulatormetal
(MIIM) diode, where an additional insulator layer allows "step tunneling" for precise diode control.[13]

Contents
[hide]

1 Forward bias operation

2 Reverse bias operation

3 Technical comparisons

o 3.1 Longevity

4 See also

5 References

6 Bibliography

7 External links

Forward bias operation[edit]

Under normal forward bias operation, as voltage begins to increase, electrons at first tunnel through the very narrow
pn junction barrier and fill electron states in the conduction band on the n-side which become aligned with empty
valence band hole states on the p-side of the p-n junction. As voltage increases further, these states become
increasingly misaligned and the current drops. This is called negative resistance because current decreases with
increasing voltage. As voltage increases yet further, the diode begins to operate as a normal diode, where electrons
travel by conduction across the pn junction, and no longer by tunneling through the pn junction barrier. The most
important operating region for a tunnel diode is the negative resistance region. Its graph is different from normal p-n
junction diode.

Reverse bias operation[edit]

Main article: Backward diode

When used in the reverse direction, tunnel diodes are called back diodes (or backward diodes) and can act as fast
rectifiers with zero offset voltage and extreme linearity for power signals (they have an accurate square law
characteristic in the reverse direction). Under reverse bias, filled states on the p-side become increasingly aligned
with empty states on the n-side and electrons now tunnel through the pn junction barrier in reverse direction.

IMPATT diode
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An IMPATT diode (IMPact ionization Avalanche Transit-Time diode) is a form of high-power semiconductor
diode used in high-frequency microwave electronics devices. They have negative resistance and are used as
oscillators to generate microwaves as well as amplifiers. They operate at frequencies between about 3 and 100 GHz
or more. A main advantage is their high-power capability. These diodes are used in a variety of applications from
low-power radar systems to proximity alarms. A major drawback of using IMPATT diodes is the high level of phase
noise they generate. This results from the statistical nature of the avalanche process.

Contents
[hide]

1 Device structure

2 Principle of operation

3 Origins

4 See also

5 Further reading

6 References

Device structure[edit]
The IMPATT diode family includes many different junctions and metal semiconductor devices. The first IMPATT
oscillation was obtained from a simple silicon p-n junction diode biased into a reverse avalanche break down and
mounted in a microwave cavity. Because of the strong dependence of the ionization coefficient on the electric field,
most of the electronhole pairs are generated in the high field region. The generated electron immediately moves
into the N region, while the generated holes drift across the P region. The time required for the hole to reach the
contact constitutes the transit time delay.

The original proposal for a microwave device of the IMPATT type was made by Read. The Read diode consists of
two regions (i) The Avalanche region (a region with relatively high doping and high field) in which avalanche
multiplication occurs and (ii) the drift region (a region with essentially intrinsic doping and constant field) in which
the generated holes drift towards the contact. A similar device can be built with the configuration in which electrons
generated from the avalanche multiplication drift through the intrinsic region.

An IMPATT diode generally is mounted in a microwave package. The diode is mounted with its highfield region
close to a copper heatsink so that the heat generated at the diode junction can be readily dissipated. Similar
microwave packages are used to house other microwave devices.

The IMPATT diode operates over a narrow frequency band, and diode internal dimensions must correlate with the
desired operating frequency. An IMPATT oscillator can be tuned by adjusting the resonant frequency of the coupled
circuit, and also by varying the current in the diode; this can be used for frequency modulation.
Principle of operation[edit]
If a free electron with a sufficient energy strikes a silicon atom, it can break the covalent bond of silicon and liberate
an electron from the covalent bond. If the electron liberated gains energy by being in an electric field and liberates
other electrons from other covalent bonds then this process can cascade very quickly into a chain reaction producing
a large number of electrons and a large current flow. This phenomenon is called impact avalanche.

At breakdown, the n region is punched through and forms the avalanche region of the diode. The high
resistivity region is the drift zone through which the avalanche generated electrons move toward the anode.

Consider a dc bias VB, just short of that required to cause breakdown, applied to the diode. Let an AC voltage of
sufficiently large magnitude be superimposed on the dc bias, such that during the positive cycle of the AC voltage,
the diode is driven deep into the avalanche breakdown. At t=0, the AC voltage is zero, and only a small pre-
breakdown current flows through the diode. As t increases, the voltage goes above the breakdown voltage and
secondary electron-hole pairs are produced by impact ionization. As long as the field in the avalanche region is
maintained above the breakdown field, the electron-hole concentration grows exponentially with t. Similarly this
concentration decays exponentially with time when the field is reduced below breakdown voltage during the
negative swing of the AC voltage. The holes generated in the avalanche region disappear in the p+ region and are
collected by the cathode. The electrons are injected into the i zone where they drift toward the n+ region. Then,
the field in the avalanche region reaches its maximum value and the population of the electron-hole pairs starts
building up. At this time, the ionization coefficients have their maximum values. The generated electron
concentration does not follow the electric field instantaneously because it also depends on the number of electron-
hole pairs already present in the avalanche region. Hence, the electron concentration at this point will have a small
value. Even after the field has passed its maximum value, the electron-hole concentration continues to grow because
the secondary carrier generation rate still remains above its average value. For this reason, the electron
concentration in the avalanche region attains its maximum value at, when the field has dropped to its average value.
Thus, it is clear that the avalanche region introduces a 90 phase shift between the AC signal and the electron
concentration in this region.

With a further increase in t, the AC voltage becomes negative, and the field in the avalanche region drops below its
critical value. The electrons in the avalanche region are then injected into the drift zone which induces a current in
the external circuit which has a phase opposite to that of the AC voltage. The AC field, therefore, absorbs energy
from the drifting electrons as they are decelerated by the decreasing field. It is clear that an ideal phase shift
between the diode current and the AC signal is achieved if the thickness of the drift zone is such that the bunch of
electron is collected at the n+ - anode at the moment the AC voltage goes to zero. This condition is achieved by
making the length of the drift region equal to the wavelength of the signal. This situation produces an additional
phase shift of 90 between the AC voltage and the diode current

PIN diode
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Layers of a PIN diode

A PIN diode is a diode with a wide, undoped intrinsic semiconductor region between a p-type semiconductor and
an n-type semiconductor region. The p-type and n-type regions are typically heavily doped because they are used
for ohmic contacts.

The wide intrinsic region is in contrast to an ordinary pn diode. The wide intrinsic region makes the PIN diode an
inferior rectifier (one typical function of a diode), but it makes it suitable for attenuators, fast switches,
photodetectors, and high voltage power electronics applications.

Contents
[hide]

1 Operation

2 Characteristics

3 Applications

o 3.1 RF and microwave switches

o 3.2 RF and microwave variable attenuators

o 3.3 Limiters

o 3.4 Photodetector and photovoltaic cell

4 Example diodes

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Operation[edit]
A PIN diode operates under what is known as high-level injection. In other words, the intrinsic "i" region is flooded
with charge carriers from the "p" and "n" regions. Its function can be likened to filling up a water bucket with a hole
on the side. Once the water reaches the hole's level it will begin to pour out. Similarly, the diode will conduct
current once the flooded electrons and holes reach an equilibrium point, where the number of electrons is equal to
the number of holes in the intrinsic region. When the diode is forward biased, the injected carrier concentration is
typically several orders of magnitude higher than the intrinsic carrier concentration. Due to this high level injection,
which in turn is due to the depletion process, the electric field extends deeply (almost the entire length) into the
region. This electric field helps in speeding up of the transport of charge carriers from the P to the N region, which
results in faster operation of the diode, making it a suitable device for high frequency operations.

Characteristics[edit]
The PIN diode obeys the standard diode equation for low frequency signals. At higher frequencies, the diode looks
like an almost perfect (very linear, even for large signals) resistor. There is a lot of stored charge in the intrinsic
region. At low frequencies, the charge can be removed and the diode turns off. At higher frequencies, there is not
enough time to remove the charge, so the diode never turns off. The PIN diode has a poor reverse recovery time.

The high-frequency resistance is inversely proportional to the DC bias current through the diode. A PIN diode,
suitably biased, therefore acts as a variable resistor. This high-frequency resistance may vary over a wide range
(from 0.1 to 10 k in some cases;[1] the useful range is smaller, though).

The wide intrinsic region also means the diode will have a low capacitance when reverse-biased.

In a PIN diode, the depletion region exists almost completely within the intrinsic region. This depletion region is
much larger than in a PN diode, and almost constant-size, independent of the reverse bias applied to the diode. This
increases the volume where electron-hole pairs can be generated by an incident photon. Some photodetector
devices, such as PIN photodiodes and phototransistors (in which the base-collector junction is a PIN diode), use a
PIN junction in their construction.

The diode design has some design trade-offs. Increasing the dimensions of the intrinsic region (and its stored
charge) allows the diode to look like a resistor at lower frequencies. It adversely affects the time needed to turn off
the diode and its shunt capacitance. It is therefore necessary to select a device with the appropriate properties for a
particular use.

Gunn diode
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A Russian-made Gunn diode

A Gunn diode, also known as a transferred electron device (TED), is a form of diode, a two-terminal passive
semiconductor electronic component, with negative resistance, used in high-frequency electronics. It is based on the
"Gunn effect" discovered in 1962 by physicist J. B. Gunn. Its largest use is in electronic oscillators to generate
microwaves, in applications such as radar speed guns, microwave relay data link transmitters, and automatic door
openers.

Its internal construction is unlike other diodes in that it consists only of N-doped semiconductor material, whereas
most diodes consist of both P and N-doped regions. It therefore does not conduct in only one direction and cannot
rectify alternating current like other diodes, which is why some sources do not use the term diode but prefer TED. In
the Gunn diode, three regions exist: two of those are heavily N-doped on each terminal, with a thin layer of lightly
n-doped material between. When a voltage is applied to the device, the electrical gradient will be largest across the
thin middle layer. If the voltage is increased, the current through the layer will first increase, but eventually, at
higher field values, the conductive properties of the middle layer are altered, increasing its resistivity, and causing
the current to fall. This means a Gunn diode has a region of negative differential resistance in its current-voltage
characteristic curve, in which an increase of applied voltage, causes a decrease in current. This property allows it to
amplify, functioning as a radio frequency amplifier, or to become unstable and oscillate when it is biased with a DC
voltage.