Novel bipolar transistor with a dual-dielectric tunnel emitter

摘要

A dual-dielectric emitter bipolar transistor device is disclosed. Two dielectric layers are deposited over the base region of a base-collector junction and are used to emulate an emitter of a conventional bipolar transistor. The transistor device obtained thereby provides for a compatible technology to easily incorporate bipolar transistors with CMOS, MNOS, and CCD structures. Preferably, the first of the two dielectric layers which is in contact with the base region is made from SiO.sub.2 and has a thickness of substantially less than 30A. The second of the two layers which sandwiches the first layer between itself and the base region may be made from a silicon-nitride compound, preferably having substantially equal proportions of silicon and nitrogen and a thickness dimension ranging from 50 to 500A. Means are provided for application of a bias voltage potential of such polarity to inject minority carriers into the base from the emitter across the emitter-base junction and also a sufficient reverse bias voltage potential across the base-collector junction. At suitably chosen forward biased voltage potentials applied across the dual-dielectric emitter junction, minority carriers are injected across the dielectric-semiconductor interface and into the base region. This minority carrier injection is attributed to a direct tunneling mechanism.