Silicon-on-insulator control impact-ionization-avalanche transistor.

In thin silicon-on-insulator structures, the gate effectively controls the longitudinal component of the electric field intensity in the pn⁺ junction, and thus the impact avalanche ionization of carriers. The present work proposes a device based on this operation principle: the control-impact-ionization-avalanche transistor, which achieves a transconductance of 0.14 (A/V)/mm. According to the developed theoretical model and preliminary experimental data, the device can be optimized to achieve very high transconductance and frequencies such as several (A/V)/mm at frequencies of the order of 100 MHz and lower, and about 1 (A/V)/mm in 0.1–1 THz range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]