A resonant-tunneling bipolar transistor (RBT): A proposal and demonstration for new functional devices with high current gains

A resonant-tunneling bipolar transistor (RBT) using MBE GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures has been proposed and fabricated. This device is a bipolar transistor using a quantum well resonator as a hot electron injector. The RBT exhibits a peaked collector-current characteristic with respect to the base-emitter voltage, due to the resonant-tunneling of electrons. The common-emitter current gain reaches 20 at 77K. The device also exhibits a peaked base-current characteristic due to the resonant-tunneling of holes. The measured resonant-tunneling voltages agree well with the simulation results.