Negative differential resistance (NDR) elements and memory device using the same

摘要

A two-terminal NDR device can be formed by coupling the gate and drain of an NDR-capable FET, such that the coupled gate and drain form a first terminal and the source of the NDR-capable FET forms the second terminal. By applying an appropriate body bias between the body and source of an NDR-capable FET configured in this manner, the NDR-capable FET can be forced to operate with a negative threshold voltage, thereby allowing the resulting two-terminal device to exhibit the desired NDR characteristics. This two-terminal device can, for example, be used as a load element in a static random access memory (SRAM) cell and various other circuits where the NDR behavior of the device would be beneficial.