Lateral resonant tunneling field-effect transistor

Abstract

A lateral resonant tunneling field-effect transistor (RTFET) is proposed. The RTFET has three closely spaced, but independent gate electrodes. The two outer gates create lateral double potential barriers in the channel, and control the barrier heights. The inner gate controls the potential of the quantum well between the barriers. These gates are capacitively coupled to the barriers and well; therefore, very small gate currents and high input impedences result. Modeling and computer simulations show that when the potential of the quantum well is scanned, the RTFET should have a better peak-to-valley ratio, narrower current peak widths, and more uniform distribution of peak and valley currents than that of a resonant tunneling diode with the same barriers and well. The independent control of the barrier heights allows us to adjust continuously the peak-to-valley ratio, amplitude, and position of current peaks. Furthermore, using an additional back gate, the peak-to-valley ratio and amplitude of peak current can also be adjusted by changing the carrier concentration next to the double barriers.