Resonant Tunneling Diodes

Abstract

Resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) exploit the quantum tunneling effect emerging in nanometer‐scale thin semiconductor heterostructures. The RTDs feature strong nonlinear current–voltage characteristics exhibiting negative differential resistance and also extremely high operation frequency. These features make the RTDs extremely useful for nonlinear microwave/millimeter‐wave circuits as well as high‐speed digital circuits. The features of RTDs and their applications to high‐frequency circuits are discussed.