Design and characterization of the negative differential resistance circuits using the CMOS and BiCMOS process

We investigate four novel negative-differential-resistance (NDR) circuits using the combination of the standard Si-based n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (NMOS) and SiGe-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). By suitably designing the parameters, we can obtain the Λ- or N-type current–voltage (I–V) curve. Especially, the peak current of the combined I–V curve could be easy adjusted by the external voltage. In application, we utilize the NDR circuit to design an inverter circuit based on the monostable–bistable transition logic element. The fabrication of these NDR circuits and applications could be completely implemented by the simple and standard Si-based CMOS or SiGe-based BiCMOS process without using the complex and expensive process such as metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).