High-frequency current instabilities in a silicon Auger transistor

Abstract

In an Auger transistor formed from an Al-SiO₂-n-Si heterojunction with a tunneling-thin oxide layer we have investigated high-frequency instabilities of S-and N-type in the collector current which arise during tunneling injection of hot electrons from the metal into the semiconductor. An Auger transistor is a new type of device in which a metal-insulator heterojunction is used as the wideband semiconductor emitter and the base of the transistor is induced by an electric field in the form of a self-consistent quantum well for holes on the silicon surface. The electrons injected from the metal into the semiconductor with a high kinetic energy (greater than 1 eV) during impact ionization generate electron-hole pairs in the region of the base-collector junction. This disrupts the current balance of the transistor and leads to the appearance of an unstable current of S-or N-type in the collector characteristics (in a circuit with a common emitter). The nature of the instability is connected with the large current gain in an Auger transistor (α>1).