Determination Of I-V Characteristics Of Negative Conductance Devices From Microwave Reflection Coefficients

Abstract

Negative differential conductance (NDC) devices have stimulated intensive research activities since the first acknowledged work on the tunnel diode, also referred to as the Esaki diode l. In recent years, the interest in NDC devices has been revived by the successful fabrication of various double barrier resonant tunneling (DBRT) structures 2,3. The interest in these DBRT structures is due primarily to their high potential as high frequency devices. For the design of high frequency devices, the necessary information is provided by the detailed shape of the dc I-V characteristics, especially the negative conductance regime. Unfortunately, the NDC regime of the I-V curve has always made the dc I-V measurement difficult because of its nature to oscillate. A direct dc measurement of the I-V characteristics by a conventional curve tracer only shows the positive conductance portion of the entire I-V curve. Various methods have been proposed to measure the I-V characteristics.