Patent ID: 10672898

Abstract:
Amorphous multi-component metallic films can be used to improve the performance of electronic devices such as resistors, diodes, and thin film transistors. An amorphous hot electron transistor (HET) having co-planar emitter and base electrodes provides electrical properties and performance advantages over existing vertical HET structures. Emitter and the base terminals of the transistor are both formed in an upper crystalline metal layer of an amorphous nonlinear resistor. The emitter and the base are adjacent to one another and spaced apart by a gap. The presence of the gap results in two-way Fowler-Nordheim tunneling between the crystalline metal layer and the amorphous metal layer, and symmetric I-V performance. Meanwhile, forming the emitter and base terminals in the same layer simplifies the HET fabrication process by reducing the number of patterning steps.