Tunneling Emitter Bipolar Transistor as a Characterization Tool for Dielectrics and their Interfaces

Abstract

The metal insulator semiconductor and metal insulator metal structures are of interest for transistor technology and resistive switching based memory. We propose the tunneling emitter bipolar transistor as a complementary characterization tool of both structures. Using this technique one can distinguish between electron and hole injection through the insulator and detect the presence of recombination centers at the dielectric-semiconductor interface. In addition, the base-collector p-n junction adjacent to the dielectric is a sensitive detector for material damage. We have examined two dielectric materials: Al2O3 and Si3N4 using a tunneling emitter bipolar transistor based upon the InP/GaInAs material system. The main conclusion drawn from the experiments is that the dominant transport mechanism through the insulators is filamentary defect assisted transport. Thermal treatment of both materials significantly reduced the interface recombination velocity.

Evaluation of the local temperature of conductive filaments in resistive switching materials

“…In this work, we present a new method for evaluating the filament temperature. The method is based upon the metal-insulator-semiconductor bipolar transistor (MIS-BT), which provides information on the energy of electrons injected through insulating materials [35,36]. The MIS-BT is composed of a metal emitter that injects electrons through an insulating layer into the semiconductor conduction and valence bands.…”