Signal processing with vertically-integrated resonant tunneling diodes

Author

Potter, Robert C. ; Shupe, Dave ; Kuo, Tai-Haur ; Lin, Hung Chang

Author_Institution

Allied-Signal Aerosp. Technol. Center, Columbia, MD, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

1-3 May 1990

Firstpage

2557

Abstract

Molecular-beam epitaxy was used to vertically integrate up to five InGaAs/InAlAs resonant tunneling structures. Devices processed from this heterostructure have five negative differential resistance (NDR) regions in the current-voltage (I-V) characteristic. One NDR region comes from the ground-state-transmission resonance in each tunneling structure. It is shown how the unique sawtooth-like I-V characteristics of this vertically integrated diode can be used for signal processing applications such as frequency multiplication, parity bit generation, and multilevel logic. An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter that is based on the vertically integrated diode is described. Simulations of this type of A/D converter show that it is capable of digitizing input signals with the digital output changing at a 30-GHz rate

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; analogue-digital conversion; frequency multipliers; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; many-valued logics; molecular beam epitaxial growth; resonant tunnelling devices; tunnel diodes; 30 GHz; A/D converter; InGaAs-InAlAs; MBE; NDR region; current voltage characteristics; digital output; digitizing input signals; five NDR regions; frequency multiplication; ground-state-transmission resonance; multilevel logic; negative differential resistance; parity bit generation; resonant tunneling structures; sawtooth-like I-V characteristics; semiconductors; signal processing; vertically integrated diode; vertically-integrated resonant tunneling diodes; Character generation; Diodes; Frequency conversion; Indium compounds; Indium gallium arsenide; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Resonance; Resonant tunneling devices; Signal generators; Signal processing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems, 1990., IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

New Orleans, LA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.1990.112531

Filename

112531