Ballistic transistor

Abstract: A field effect transistor and a ballistic transistor using semiconductor whiskers each having a desired diameter and formed at s desired location, a semiconductor vacuum microelectronic device using the same as electron emitting materials, a light emitting device using the same as quantum wires and the like are disclosed.

Abstract: The quantitative analogies that have been established between electron wave propagation in semiconductors and optical wave propagation in dielectrics are used to demonstrate that high‐resolution energy filters in semiconductors are possible. An example filter consisting of electron quarter‐wavelength layers of GaAs and Ga0.55Al0.45As and a half‐wavelength layer of GaAs is presented and theoretically analyzed. The pass electron energy is 0.139 eV and the passband is only 0.003 eV (2.2% of pass energy). Such a filter could be incorporated into semiconductor devices (e.g., as a hot‐electron emitter in a ballistic transistor) or used to control free‐space electron beams (e.g., in electron beam lithography).

Abstract: The intermediate transport regime in nanoscale transistors between the fully ballistic case and the quasi equilibrium case described by the drift-diffusion model is still an open modeling issue. Analytical approaches to the problem have been proposed, based on the introduction of a backscattering coefficient, or numerical approaches consisting in the MonteCarlo solution of the Boltzmann transport equation or in the introduction of dissipation in quantum transport descriptions. In this paper we propose a very simple analytical model to seamlessly cover the whole range of transport regimes in generic quasi-one dimensional field-effect transistors, and apply it to silicon nanowire transistors. The model is based on describing a generic transistor as a chain of ballistic nanowire transistors in series, or as the series of a ballistic transistor and a drift-diffusion transistor operating in the triode region. As an additional result, we find a relation between the mobility and the mean free path, that has deep consequences on the understanding of transport in nanoscale devices.

Abstract: The Nanotube Array Ballistic Transistors are disclosed, wherein the ballistic (without collisions) electron propagation along the nanotubes, grown normally to the substrate plane on the common metal electrode, is used for a new class of hybrid (solid state/vacuum) electronic devices. In the disclosed transistors, the array of nanotubes emits electrons into vacuum when electrons gain sufficient energy inside the nanotubes due to ballistic electron movement under the voltage applied to the nanotube ends. In the disclosed devices, planar layer deposition technology is used to form multilayer structures and attach two electrodes to the nanotubes ends. The ballistic transistor can also be used for making a new type of electron-emission display when a phosphor layer is deposited on the anode electrode. The non-ballistic nanotube array transistor, employing field-induced electron emission and the same planar layer deposition technique, is also disclosed, the device being considered to be a transistor approaching terahertz frequency range of operation.