Concepts of gain at an oxide-semiconductor interface and their application to the TETRAN ― a tunnel emitter transistor ― and to the MIS switching device

Abstract The idea of current gain at an insulator interface is discussed using the tunnel-oxide as an example upon which to base calculations. A novel approach to the calculation of tunnel components is introduced which accurately describes the electron tunnel component when the metal Fermi level is both above and below the semiconductor conduction band edge. A new form of bipolar amplifier (the TETRAN) is proposed and its performance is compared from a logic and memory point of view with existing transistors. As a logic element the device does not perform well when compared with MOS transistors because the current densities that one can obtain are too low to charge the relatively large tunnel-oxide capacitance. For the memory comparison, the concepts of gain necessary for TETRAN operation are applied to the MIS switching device. Preliminary experimental verification of the concept is reported.