Techniques for fabrication of germanium and gallium-arsenide tunnel diodes

A technique for fabricating tunnel diodes in both germanium and gallium-arsenide will be presented. Material preparation, alloying, mounting, and etching will be considered in detail. Germanium tunnel diodes with I
p
/I
v
ratio greater than 10 and I
p
/C merit factor greater than 5ma/pf, and gallium-arsenide tunnel diodes with I
p
/I
v
, ratio greater than 40 and I
p
/C merit factor greater than 10ma/pf will be considered. Temperature dependence of I
p
and I
v
, with methods used to stabilize these parameters will be discussed.