A Review of

Resonant Tunneling Diode

and its Applications
By
Yan Jean Wei
Aparajeeta Guha
Anushpamathi Sundararajan

Under the Guidance of

Prof. Chee Wei Wong

DATE : 11/30/2022 EC ENGR 223 Solid-States Electronics I

Outline
● Introduction
● Paper Review of Resonant Tunneling Diode
○ Physical Process in Double-Barrier Tunneling in RTD
○ Negative Differential Resistance
○ Two Important Aspects of Modeling
● Physics of Resonant Tunneling and its applications

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 Quantum Tunneling
Allow a quantum particle to penetrate through the barrier even though the potential barrier
exceeds the particle’s energy.

In quantum world, particle penetrates

For classical particles, only Particle B can get over the through the well even though E<V(x).
h3 barrier with height h1.

h1
1/2mv2 1/2mv2
h2 =mgh
2 =mgh3 h1
A B

Griffiths, David J., and Darrell F. Schroeter. Introduction to quantum mechanics. Cambridge university press, 2018. 3
 Resonant Tunneling
● Quantum particles that can tunnel through barriers in resonant states.
● It often occurs when there are two or more potential barriers.
● Resonant Tunneling Diode(RTD) often uses double-barrier structure.

Ricco, B., and M. Ya Azbel. "Physics of resonant tunneling. The one-dimensional double-barrier case." Physical Review B 29.4 (1984): 1970.
https://www.physics.ucsc.edu/academic-programs/undergrads/sample_thesis/shestakov.pdf 4
Background Review of Resonant Tunneling Diode
● Reducing chip size has been a demanding work.
● Research about nanoelectronic devices evolves since it will eventually reach an
ultimate limit on the downscaling conventional transistor.
● Resonant tunneling has been deeply explored since it was proposed by Tsu and Esaki
in 70s. Researchers thereby have a better understanding of the physics and
nanofabrication technology.
● For new opportunities to downscale devices, RTD therefore becomes a research focus
in nanoelectronic devices.

Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the
IEEE, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 641-660, April 1998, doi: 10.1109/5.663541.
Tsu, R., and Leo Esaki. "Tunneling in a finite superlattice." Applied Physics Letters 22.11 (1973): 562-564. 5
Background Review of Resonant Tunneling Diode
● Negative Differential Resistance makes RTD a promising device to simply circuit
design and to reduce power consumption in circuit.
● One of the fastest electron devices
○ In high-speed digital circuits and high-speed microwave source.
○ Recent study of Terahertz emitter in RTD by Asada’s team in 2021.
● Used in high-speed optical communication
○ Light absorption layer.

Lin, Shaojun, et al. "III-nitrides based resonant tunneling diodes." Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 53.25 (2020): 253002.
6
Asada, Masahiro, and Safumi Suzuki. "Terahertz emitter using resonant-tunneling diode and applications." Sensors 21.4 (2021): 1384.
How to make RTD in realization
● Nanofabrication –
○ The devices and circuits must be fabricated with nanometer precision.
● Quantum transport modeling of RTD –
○ Demand to understand physical operation in quantum world and to provide a test for developing
theoretical tools.
○ Ex: Predicting I-V characteristics of nanoelectronic devices
● Circuit innovation –
○ Negative Differential Resistance
○ Peak-to-valley current ratio has been advanced due to progress in epitaxial growth.
○ Techniques for higher integration of RTD into integrated circuits has been improved.

Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86,
no. 4, pp. 641-660, April 1998, doi: 10.1109/5.663541. 7
8
Physical processes in double-barrier tunneling in RTD
● The basic RTD device configuration is a
DBQW structure of nanometer dimensions,
including two contacts as depicted in Figure
where the regions I-II & VI-VII are heavily
doped contacts made from a semiconductor
with a relatively small bandgap, e.g., GaAs.
These layers comprise the emitter and
collector, respectively.
● Regions III and V are quantum barriers
made from a semiconductor with a relatively
larger bandgap, e.g., AlGaAs.
● Region IV between the two barriers is the
quantum well made again from the smaller
bandgap semiconductor. It is sometimes also
called the base.

Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 641-660,
April 1998, doi: 10.1109/5.663541.
Tsu, R., and Leo Esaki. "Tunneling in a finite superlattice." Applied Physics Letters 22.11 (1973): 562-564. 9
Physical Processes in RTD’s ● There are dimensional changes across the interfaces, i.e., the
three-dimensional (3-D) density of states in the emitter versus the
twodimensional (2-D) density of states in the quantum well leads to
multiple reflection and causing destructive or constructive
interference depending on the wavelength of the particular
electron. For electrons with specific wavelengths that favor
constructive interference, a near-unity transmission probability is
found at energies corresponding to these wavelengths.Resonant
tunneling occurs at these resonant energy levels, which may have
a finite width in energy due to broadening mechanisms. This
process is indicated in Figure by process 1 for an electron with
energy E1 coincident with the resonant energy E0.
● In process 2, an electron is first scattered into an energy level E2
in the emitter accumulation layer, which is a 2-D potential well in
region II. and then absorb a phonon and sequentially tunnel
through the resonant level E0.
● In process 3, an electron with an initial energy interact with the
lattice vibration by emitting a phonon, then tunnel through E0 .
● Electrons with sufficiently high energies, E4 can overcome the
barriers by thermionic emission, as indicated by process4.

Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 641-660,
April 1998, doi: 10.1109/5.663541.
Tsu, R., and Leo Esaki. "Tunneling in a finite superlattice." Applied Physics Letters 22.11 (1973): 562-564. 10
Origin of Negative Differential Resistance
● In resonant tunneling there are dimensional changes across the interfaces, i.e., the
three-dimensional (3-D) density of states in the emitter versus the two dimensional (2-D) density
of states in the quantum well leads to multiple reflection and causing destructive or constructive
interference depending on the wavelength of the particular electron.incident from the 3-D
contacts into the 2-D quantum well, where the electrons have a plane-wave like motion only in y
and z directions, as shown in Figure.
● During tunneling, a reduction of dimensionality occurs, but the tunneling electrons do not see
any potential change in the transverse directions and their transverse momentum is therefore
conserved.
● The tunneling current density therefore has a sharp drop from its maximum value. Further
increase of the bias and/or temperature will further lift up the electron distribution in the emitter,
and electron thermionic emission and tunneling through the top regions of the barriers will lead
to an increase in current density which in turn leads to Negetive Differential Resistance.

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Two important aspect of modelling :
Proper energy-band parameters for a particular RTD structure, built up from dissimilar materials and their interfaces and A proper transport formalism, which must
be able to model the major processes in the RTD.

Modeled and measured RTD I–V characteristics using the

Elements of quantum device modelling envelope function model with parameter adjustment.
Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 641-660, April 1998, doi:
10.1109/5.663541. 12
Tsu, R., and Leo Esaki. "Tunneling in a finite superlattice." Applied Physics Letters 22.11 (1973): 562-564.
Resonant Tunneling
Resonant tunneling occurs in systems with two or more potential barriers separated by
quantum wells.

In the quantum well there exist quasi-bound states which are analogous to bound states in a
finite or in an infinite well.

● Oscillatory nature
● Exponential decay

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 Some parameters of RTD
Parameter RTD I-V Characteristics

1 Device Structure Double Barrier Quantum Well

2 Operating Principle Resonant Tunneling

3 Carrier Transport Unipolar

4 Tunneling Process Intraband

5 I-V Characteristics N - shape

6 Si Technology SiGeC and other materials

Compatibility

Jian Ping Sun, G. I. Haddad, P. Mazumder and J. N. Schulman, "Resonant tunneling diodes: models and properties," in Proceedings of the
IEEE, vol. 86, no. 4, pp. 641-660, April 1998, doi: 10.1109/5.663541. 14
Tsu, R., and Leo Esaki. "Tunneling in a finite superlattice." Applied Physics Letters 22.11 (1973): 562-564.
Potential function at different biases for RTDs
Potential function for an RTD at
different biases:

(a) zero bias,

(b) threshold bias,
(c) resonance, and
(d) off-resonance.

Resonant tunneling diodes can exhibit negative

differential resistance or conductance,

This can be seen by examining the transmission

coefficient.
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Rate of exp
growth/decay

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Applications
● RTDs favorable for generating high frequency signals.

● RTD’s high operation speeds make them useful for high-frequency switching

circuits.

● Static memory elements.

● Terahertz Emitter

● Oscillator

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 Q&A
…………..THANK YOU! 18