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 when working at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, now known as Sony.[1][2] In 1973, Esaki received the Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental demonstration of the electron tunneling effect in semiconductors.[3] Robert Noyce independently devised the idea of a tunnel diode while working for William Shockley, but was discouraged from pursuing it.[4] Tunnel diodes were first manufactured by Sony in 1957,[5] followed by General Electric and other companies from about 1960, and are still made in low volume today.[6]
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.
^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.
^"Chapter 9: The Model 2T7 Transistor". www.sony.net. Sony History. Sony Global. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
^"The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973: Award ceremony speech". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
^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.
^ソニー半導体の歴史 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2 February 2009.
^Rostky, George. "Tunnel diodes: the transistor killers". EE Times. Archived from the original on 7 January 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
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radioactivity. Negative resistances can be used as amplifiers, such as the tunneldiode amplifier. A power amplifier is an amplifier designed primarily to increase...
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transistor, comparator, relay, op amp, or a negative resistance device like a tunneldiode, that repetitively charges a capacitor or inductor through a resistance...
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