摘要:
A control circuit for a transistor arrangement comprises a monitoring arrangement (60) for monitoring the current flow and voltage across the transistor arrangement (50) and means (62) for determining if the current and voltage values define an operating point which falls within a stable operating region. The stable operating region comprises a region having a boundary (30) which comprises an electro-thermal instability line.
摘要:
A tunnel transistor includes source diffusion (4) of opposite conductivity type to a drain diffusion (6) so that a depletion layer is formed between source and drain diffusions in a lower doped region (8). An insulated gate (16) controls the position and thickness of the depletion layer. The device includes a quantum well formed in accumulation layer (20) which is made of a different material to the lower layer (2) and cap layer (22).
摘要:
The invention relates to a semiconductor device including a preferably discrete bipolar transistor with a collector region, a base region, and an emitter region which are provided with connection conductors. A known means of preventing a saturation of the transistor is that the latter is provided with a Schottky clamping diode. The latter is formed in that case in that the connection conductor of the base region is also put into contact with the collector region. In a device according to the invention, the second connection conductor is exclusively connected to the base region, and a partial region of that portion of the base region which lies outside the emitter region, as seen in projection, lying below the second connection conductor is given a smaller flux of dopant atoms. The bipolar transistor in a device according to the invention is provided with a pn clamping diode which is formed between the partial region and the collector region. Such a device has excellent properties, such as a short switching time and a saturation collector-emitter voltage which is not too high, while having a low, non-variable and well reproducible leakage current, unlike the known device. The reduced flux of dopant atoms of the partial region is preferably realized in that the partial region is given a smaller doping concentration and/or thickness than the remainder of the portion of the base region which lies outside the emitter region. In a favorable modification, a region provided simultaneously with the emitter region is present between the partial region and the second connection conductor.
摘要:
Very high resistance values may be necessary in integrated circuits, for example in the gigaohm range, for example for realizing RC times of 1 ms to 1 s. Such resistance values cannot or substantially not be realized by known methods in standard i.c. processes because of the too large space occupation. In addition, known embodiments are usually strongly dependent on the temperature. According to the invention, therefore, two zener diodes (10, 4; 11, 4) connected back-to-back are used as the resistor. The current through each zener diode is mainly determined by band--band tunneling when the voltage is not too high, for example up to approximately 0.2 V. This current has a value such that resistors in the giga range can be readily realized on a small surface area. Since the current is mainly determined by intrinsic material properties of silicon, the temperature dependence is very small. The resistor may furthermore be manufactured in any standard CMOS process or bipolar process.
摘要:
A device compensated for an undesired capacitance includes a first and a second node between which nodes the undesired capacitance is present. A diode driven in breakthrough is coupled between the first and the second node. As a diode driven in breakthrough exhibits the characteristics of a negative capacitance, a compensation of the undesired capacitance is achieved.
摘要:
A control circuit for a transistor arrangement comprises a monitoring arrangement (60) for monitoring the current flow and voltage across the transistor arrangement (50) and means (62) for determining if the current and voltage values define an operating point which falls within a stable operating region. The stable operating region comprises a region having a boundary (30) which comprises an electro-thermal instability line.
摘要:
A semiconductor device, such as a MOSFET or PN diode rectifier, has a p-n junction (24) between a first device region (23) and an underlying voltage-sustaining zone (20). Trenched field-shaping regions (40) extend through the voltage-sustaining zone (20) to improve the voltage-blocking and on-resistance characteristics of the device. The trenched field-shaping region (40) comprises a resistive path (42) accommodated in a trench (41) that has an insulating layer (44) at its side-walls. The insulating layer (44) dielectrically couples potential from the resistive path (42) to the voltage-sustaining zone (20) that is depleted in a voltage-blocking mode of operation of the device. The insulating layer (44) extends at the side-walls of the trench (41) to an upper level (81) that is higher than a lower level (82) at which the resistive path (42) starts in the trench (41). This lower level (82) is more closely aligned to the p-n junction (24) and is protected by the insulating layer (44) extending to the higher level (81). This construction enables the electric field distribution in the voltage-sustaining zone (20) to be improved by aligning very closely the start of the potential drop along the resistive path (42) with the p-n junction depth (d).
摘要:
The invention relates to a so-called punch-through diode with a mesa (12) comprising, in succession, a first (1), a second (2) and a third (3) semiconductor region (1) of, respectively, a first, a second and the first conductivity type, which punch-through diode is provided with two connection conductors (5, 6). During operation of said diode, a voltage is applied such that the second semiconductor region (2) is fully depleted. A drawback of the known punch-through diode resides in that the current flow is too large at lower voltages. In a punch-through diode according to the invention, a part (2A, 2B) of the second semiconductor region (2), which, viewed in projection, borders on the edge of the mesa (12), is provided with a larger flux of doping atoms of the second conductivity type than the remainder (2A) of the second semiconductor region (2). It has been found that the high current at a low voltage of the known diode is caused by the fact that the second semiconductor region (2) at the edge of the mesa (12) is depleted before the remainder of the second semiconductor region (2). By locally increasing the flux of doping atoms, the depletion at the edge is delayed as compared to the remainder of the second semiconductor region. Preferably, this result is obtained by locally increasing the thickness of the second semiconductor region (2). In this manner, a substantial current reduction at lower voltages is obtained in the diode in accordance with the invention.
摘要:
A thermally programmable memory has a programmable element (20) of a thermally programmable resistance preferably of phase change material, material and a blown antifuse (80) located adjacent to the programmable material. Such a blown antifuse has a dielectric layer (100) surrounded by conductive layers (90, 110) to enable a brief high voltage to be applied across the dielectric to blow a small hole in the dielectric during manufacture to form a small conductive path which can be used as a tiny electrical heater for programming the material. Due to the current confinement by the hole, the volume of the material that must be heated in order to switch to a highly-resistive state is very small. As a result the programming power can be low.
摘要:
A semiconductor device includes a preferably discrete bipolar transistor with a collector region, a base region, and an emitter region which are provided with connection conductors. A known means of preventing a saturation of the transistor is that the latter is provided with a Schottky clamping diode. The latter is formed in that case in that the connection conductor of the base region is also put into contact with the collector region. Here, the second connection conductor is exclusively connected to the base region, and a partial region of that portion of the base region which lies outside the emitter region, as seen in projection, lying below the second connection conductor is given a smaller flux of dopant atoms. The bipolar transistor is provided with a pn clamping diode which is formed between the partial region and the collector region.