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Tunnel Diode

Tunnel diodes have a heavily doped p-n junction that is only about 10nm wide, allowing quantum tunneling to occur. When a small forward bias is applied, electrons tunnel from the n-region to the p-region, producing a maximum tunneling current. As more voltage is applied, the tunneling current decreases due to fewer electrons being able to tunnel. Under reverse bias, electrons tunnel from the p-region to the n-region, producing a large tunneling current. Tunnel diodes can be used in high-speed oscillator circuits due to their ability to operate at high frequencies and negative resistance property. However, they fell out of common use due to low output power and narrow voltage range.

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Syed muhammad zaidi
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261 views31 pages

Tunnel Diode

Tunnel diodes have a heavily doped p-n junction that is only about 10nm wide, allowing quantum tunneling to occur. When a small forward bias is applied, electrons tunnel from the n-region to the p-region, producing a maximum tunneling current. As more voltage is applied, the tunneling current decreases due to fewer electrons being able to tunnel. Under reverse bias, electrons tunnel from the p-region to the n-region, producing a large tunneling current. Tunnel diodes can be used in high-speed oscillator circuits due to their ability to operate at high frequencies and negative resistance property. However, they fell out of common use due to low output power and narrow voltage range.

Uploaded by

Syed muhammad zaidi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2

Muhammad Ali Humza Asghar

10ES58 10ES40

Syed Muhammad Zaidi 10ES60


Waseem Shoukat 10Es41

Tunnel diode is the p-n junction device that exhibits negative resistance. That means when the voltage is increased the current through it decreases.

Basic

structure:

A tunnel diode is a semiconductor diode which is capable of very fast operation, by using quantum mechanical effects.

Has a heavily doped p-n junction i.e. 10nm wide. Very narrow depletion region.

Manufacturing:

Tunnel diodes were manufactured by Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo now known as Sony for the first time in 1957.

Tunnel diodes are usually made from germanium, but can also be made in gallium arsenide and silicon materials.

We use a highly doped N-type germanium chip. Place an Indium pellet on it. Place it in an oven at 500C, in this way this pellet melts down and some part of it enters the N-type. On cooling a p-type region is formed on ntype. It is then enclosed in a ceramic shell.

Normal diode Blocks current when it is reverse biased.


Does not show negative resistance. Normally doped. Does not show tunneling effect. No insulator is placed between p-n junction.

Tunnel diode Allow current even in reverse bias condition.


Shows negative resistance.

Heavily doped. Shows tunneling effect. An insulator like SiO2 is placed between p-n junction.

Definition: It is the quantum mechanical process by which a particle can penetrate a classically forbidden energy region.

Friedrich Hund was the first to take notice of tunneling in 1927.

The degree of the blockage of particle is directly proportional to mass of the object.

For thick barrier, Quantum mechanics say that the electrons cannot cross the barrier. It can only pass the barrier if it has more energy than the barrier height.

For thin barrier, Newtonian mechanics still says that the electrons cannot cross the barrier. However, Quantum mechanics says that the electron wave nature will allow it to tunnel through the barrier.

When the p and n region are highly doped, the depletion region becomes very thin (~10nm). In such case, there is a finite probability that electrons can tunnel from the conduction band of n-region to the valence band of p-region During the tunneling the particle ENERGY DOES NOT CHANGE

Tunneling occurs with barriers of thickness around 1-3 nm and smaller, but also cause some important macroscopic physical phenomena. Like it causes leakage current in VLSI. Radioactive decay: this is done via the tunneling of a particle out of the nucleus. Cold emission: Electrons jump from the surface of a metal to follow a voltage bias because they statistically end up with more energy than the barrier. When the electric field is large, the barrier becomes thin enough for electrons to tunnel out of the atomic state, leading to a current that varies approximately exponentially with the electric field.

Tunneling field effect transistor: A research project has demonstrated field effect transistors in which the gate is controlled via quantum tunnelling . Scanning tunneling microscope:

Tunneling field effect transistor: A European research project has demonstrated field effect transistors in which the gate is controlled via quantum tunnelling . Scanning tunneling microscope.

Tunnel Diode Operation


When the semiconductor is very highly doped the Fermi level goes above the conduction band for n-type and below valence band for p- type material.

Step 2: A small forward bias is applied. Potential barrier is still very high no noticeable injection and forward current through the junction. However, electrons in the conduction band of the n region will tunnel to the empty states of the valence band in p region. This will create a forward bias tunnel current

Step 3:

With a larger voltage the energy of the majority of electrons in the n-region is equal to that of the empty states (holes) in the valence band of p-region; this will produce maximum tunneling current

Step 4:

As the forward bias continues to increase, the number of electrons in the n side that are directly opposite to the empty states in the valence band (in terms of their energy) decrease. Therefore decrease in the tunneling current will start.

Step 5:

As more forward voltage is applied, the tunneling current drops to zero. But the regular diode forward current due to electron hole injection increases due to lower potential barrier.

Step 6:

With further voltage increase, the tunnel diode characteristic is similar to that of a regular p-n diode.

Under Reverse Bias

In this case the, electrons in the valence band of the p side tunnel directly towards the empty states present in the conduction band of the n side creating large tunneling current which increases with the application of reverse voltage. The TD reverse is similar to the Zener diode with nearly zero breakdown voltage.

Circuits with the Tunnel Diodes

Typical Tunnel Diode (TD) characteristic has two distinct features: (1) it is STRONGLY non-linear. Current - Voltage relationships for TDs cannot be described using the Ohms law (2) it has a negative differential resistance (NDR) region

The total current I in a tunnel diode is given by:

I=Itun +Idiode +Iexcess

Works at a very high frequency. High speed Resists damaging effects of nuclear radiation. Very little effect of environmental conditions. Very small size than normal transistors. Use as an oscillator and high frequency device. Practical tunnel diodes operate at a few miliamperes and a few tenths of a volt, making them low-power devices. Low noise.

Very easy process. Light weight. High ratio of peak to valley current. Low cost. High speed. Very simple structure.

The tunnel diode is rarely used these days and this results from its disadvantages. Firstly they only have a low tunneling current this may be acceptable for low noise amplifiers, Low power devices Higher production costs. Very low voltage range (may be 1V or less). Very low power output.

works as : local oscillators for UHF television tuners, trigger circuits in oscilloscopes, high speed counter circuits, very fast-rise time pulse generator circuits. Used in amplifier circuits. In oscillator circuits as microwave oscillator. As logic memory storage device.

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