Gate-controlled source-to-drain resistance of FET's

The huge range of the source-to-drain resistance of FET's may be due to the existence of backbiased Schottky diodes which appear at the source and drain electrodes when the gate voltage has completely depleted the channel region. Charged particle detectors might be realized from this mechanism if the value of R
ds
(max) can be raised from 10
¹³
to 10
¹⁷
Ω.