Abstract
We summarize improvements to the performance of oscillators based on double-barrier resonant-tunneling diodes and their relationship to developments in three material systems. Higher frequencies, and more recently higher output powers, have resulted from these materials developments, so that today waveguide oscillators produce output power of up to a milliwatt at lower frequencies and about one microwatt near 400 GHz. The basic concepts of resonant-tunneling oscillators are described, and the ways in which new materials contribute to improved device characteristics are discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
R.F. Trambarulo, International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 1961.
This expression has been derived for any resonant state, e.g., by J. Blatt and V.F. Weisskopf, Theoretical Nuclear Physics (Springer, Berlin, 1979). Its application to RTDs has been pointed out by B. Ricco and M.Ya. Azbel, “Physics of resonant tunneling: The one-dimensional double-barrier case,” Phys. Rev. B 29, 1970 (1984) and by D.D. Coon and H.C. Liu, “Frequency limit of double barrier resonant tunneling oscillators,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 49, 94 (1986).
R.K. Mains and G.I. Haddad, “Time-dependent modeling of resonant-tunneling diodes from direct solution of the Schrödinger equation,” J. Appl. Phys. 64, 3564 (1988).
E.R. Brown, C.D. Parker, and T.C.L.G. Sollner, “Effect of quasibound-state lifetime on the oscillation power of resonant tunneling diodes,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 934 (1989).
S.M. Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices (Wiley, New York, 1981).
E.R. Brown, W.D. Goodhue, and T.C.L.G. Sollner, “Fundamental oscillations up to 200 GHz in resonant tunneling diodes and new estimates of their maximum oscillation frequency from stationary-state tunneling theory,” J. Appl. Phys. 64, 1519 (1988).
T.C.L.G. Sollner, P.E. Tannenwald, D.D. Peck, and W.D. Goodhue, “Quantum well oscillators,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 45, 1319 (1984).
See, e.g., T.J. Shewchuk, P.C. Chapin, P.D. Coleman, W. Kopp, R. Fischer, and H. Morkoç, “Resonant tunneling oscillations in a GaAs-AlxGai_xAs heterostructure at room temperature,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 46, 508 (1985) and W.D. Goodhue, T.C.L.G. Sollner, H.Q. Le, E.R. Brown, and B.A. Vojak, “Large room-temperature effects from resonant tunneling through AlAs barriers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 49, 1086 (1986).
This work is summarized in Refs. 4, 6, 7 and E.R. Brown, T.C.L.G. Sollner, C.D. Parker, W.D. Goodhue, and C.L. Chen, “Oscillations up to 420 GHz in GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling diodes,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 55, 1777 (1989).
A. Rydberg, H. Grönqvist, E. Kollberg, “A theoretical and experimental investigation on millimeter-wave quantum well oscillators,” Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett. 1, 333 (1988).
T. Inata, S. Muto, Y. Nakata, S. Sasa, T. Fujii, and S. Hiyamizu, “A pseudomorphic In0.53Ga0.47As/AIAs resonant tunneling barrier with a peak-to-valley current ratio of 14 at room temperature,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 26, L1332 (1987).
T.P.E. Broekaert, W. Lee, and C.G. Fonstad, “Pseudomorphic In0.53Ga0.47As/A1As/InAs resonant tunneling diodes with peak-to-valley current ratios of 30 at room temperature,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 53, 1545 (1988).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sollner, T.C.L.G., Brown, E.R., Söderström, J.R., McGill, T.C., Parker, C.D., Goodhue, W.D. (1991). High-Frequency Oscillators Based on Resonant Tunneling. In: Chang, L.L., Mendez, E.E., Tejedor, C. (eds) Resonant Tunneling in Semiconductors. NATO ASI Series, vol 277. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3846-2_45
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3846-2_45
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6716-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3846-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive