Heterostructure insulated gate field effect transistors operated in hot electron-regime

Abstract

The experimental study of the hot-electron, real-space transfer regime of operation in the Al/sub 0.7/Ga/sub 0.3/As/In/sub 0.2/Ga/sub 0.8/As/GaAs heterostructure insulated gate field effect transistors (HIGFET's) demonstrates that the device transconductance in this regime of operation can be more than one order of magnitude higher than in the conventional mode of operation. In this hot-electron regime of operation, the drain-to-source voltage acts as the input voltage, and the gate current as the output current. The reason for the observed large transconductance is a large conduction band discontinuity between the Al/sub 0.7/Ga/sub 0.3/As and In/sub 0.2/Ga/sub 0.3/As which causes the real space transfer at higher electron energies leading to a more rapid increase of the gate current with an increase in the drain-to-source voltage. >