New Diode Could Enable Faster, More Efficient Electronics

Science Daily | Ohio State University ^ | 2003-10-16

[sourcery]

FYI

[Diogenesis]

Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics

Britney's Band theory

[expatpat]

Don't get too excited -- the work-horse of microelectronics is the transisor, not the diode.

[sourcery]

a diOde to a Nightingale?

[jwalsh07]

I believe you're missing something.

[dr_who_2]

That might just be the point the article was trying to arrive at. Why build a gate out of two or more FETs when you can make several with about as many diodes?

[GeronL]

OK diode sounds old fashioned, like vaccuum tubes

They should call it something like Quantam Laser Enabling Embed

[krb]

There's a whole field of work in Diode-Diode and Transistor-diode logic that could benefit from this work.

[QQQQQ]

"Berger said that the diode's ability to operate in low-power conditions makes it ideal for use in power-hungry devices that generate radio-frequency signals, such as cordless home telephones and cell phones. With little power input, the diode could generate a strong signal.

One other application that Berger finds particularly interesting involves medical devices. The diode could support a low-power data link that would let doctors perform diagnostics on pacemakers and other implants by remote, without wires protruding through a patient's skin that could cause infections."

Looks like it has a lot of significant real life applications.

[old-ager]

> I believe you're missing something.

Right; a tunnel diode has negative resistance in part of its characteristic curve; therefore it has gain.

[Eala]

Thanks for posting this! A number of years ago I came up with an application that would have been well served by the Esaki diode (utilizing its negative-resistance and high-frequency characteristics), but to my dismay a search for such came up with nothing. It wouldn't have been very lucrative anyway...

(Do they still make anything out of germanium?)

[Mannaggia l'America]

I'd like to get into her dopants. :-)

[Barry Goldwater]

Wireless telemetry for medical implants has existed for decades.
The new diode is a marginal improvement, if any at all.

[Diogenesis]

Another use may be for voltage multiplication through a "charge brigade" circuit using an inductor.
This enables a voltage source to supply a higher potential. It has uses.

[stevio]

How does it have gain, as a traditional doide has only two terminals? Is the substrate charged?

[old-ager]

> How does it have gain, as a traditional diode has only two terminals? Is the substrate charged?

I am sorry, I cannot quite remember how to explain this. But it has gain as a two-terminal device.

On a certain part of the tunnel diode's voltage / curve, the diode displays negative resistance, which amounts to gain. I think a common use is in oscillators.

http://www.tpub.com/content/neets/14183/css/14183_124.htm
http://domino.watson.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/0/9e11c2e9488bf1df85256bfa00683ee3?OpenDocument

[old-ager]

> voltage / curve

meant voltage / current curve

[expatpat]

What am I missing?

[expatpat]

It's true that the negative resistance adds functionality relative to a simple diode. Furthermore, several III-V quantum-tunneling diodes can be made on one site (we once made an A/D converter from a bunch of them). However, the added functionality is more useful for analog circuits (oscillators, ADCs, etc.) than the digital circuits these guys are hawking.