Gate controlled surface tunneling transistor

A three terminal, field effect silicon surface tunneling transistor (STT) is presented. The device incorporates lateral band-to-band tunneling as the current conduction process. This lateral band-to-band tunneling is controlled by the application of a gate bias. Two-dimensional computer simulations and experimental results verify the operation of the device. The drain current is found to vary exponentially with respect to both the drain voltage and gate voltage. The drain current's exponential relationship to the gate voltage may prove useful to signal detector type applications. Temperature dependence characteristics and switching performance for the device are also presented.