Tunnel diode

Tunnel diode
1N3716 tunnel diode (with 0.1" jumper for scale)
TypePassive
Working principle‍Quantum tunneling
InventedLeo Esaki
Yuriko Kurose[1]
First production Sony
Pin configuration anode and cathode
Electronic symbol
10 mA germanium tunnel diode mounted in test fixture of Tektronix 571 curve tracer

A tunnel diode or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor diode that has effectively "negative resistance" due to the quantum mechanical effect called tunneling. It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki and Yuriko Kurose when working at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, now known as Sony.[1][2][3][4] In 1973, Esaki received the Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental demonstration of the electron tunneling effect in semiconductors.[5] Robert Noyce independently devised the idea of a tunnel diode while working for William Shockley, but was discouraged from pursuing it.[6] Tunnel diodes were first manufactured by Sony in 1957,[7] followed by General Electric and other companies from about 1960, and are still made in low volume today.[8]

Tunnel diodes have a heavily doped positive-to-negative (P-N) junction that is about 10 nm (100 Å) wide. The heavy doping results in a broken band gap, where conduction band electron states on the N-side are more or less aligned with valence band hole states on the P-side. They are usually made from germanium, but can also be made from gallium arsenide, gallium antimonide (GaSb) and silicon materials.

  1. ^ a b US 3033714, issued 1962-05-08 
  2. ^ Esaki, Leo (15 January 1958). "New Phenomenon in Narrow Germanium p−n Junctions". Physical Review. 109 (2): 603–604. Bibcode:1958PhRv..109..603E. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.109.603.
  3. ^ Esaki, Reona (Leo); Kurose, Yuriko; Suzuki, Takashi (1957). Internal Field Emission at Ge P-N Junction. Physical Society of Japan 1957 annual meeting. doi:10.11316/jpsgaiyoi.12.5.0_85. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  4. ^ "The Esaki Diode, Chapter 9 The Model 2T7 Transistor, Part I, Sony History". Sony Corporation. 1996. Retrieved 2018-04-04. In the first public report of the discovery (presentation at the 12th annual meeting of the Physical Society of Japan in October 1957), Takashi Suzuki, who was a student at Tokyo University of Science and doing his internship at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo under Esaki's supervision, was a co-author. Suzuki, along with Yuriko Kurose, first observed the negative differential resistance when they were testing heavily doped P-N junctions.
  5. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973: Award ceremony speech". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  6. ^ Berlin, Leslie (2005). The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516343-5.
  7. ^ ソニー半導体の歴史 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2 February 2009.
  8. ^ Rostky, George. "Tunnel diodes: the transistor killers". EE Times. Archived from the original on 7 January 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2009.