Semiconductor device

• US 4,975,750 A
• Filed: 06/12/1987
• Issued: 12/04/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/1977
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Inventors: Suzuki, Eiichi, Hayashi, Yutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Hille, Rolf
• Assistant Examiner(s): Abraham, Fetsum
• Application Number:
  US07/060,866
• Time in Patent Office: 1,271 Days
• Field of Search: 357/12, 357/34, 357/4.6
• US Class Current: 257/39
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14681 Bipolar transistor imagers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/0843 Source or drain regions of field-effect devices
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/7311 Tunnel transistors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/737 Hetero-junction transistors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/802 with heterojunction gate, e.g. transistors with semiconductor layer acting as gate insulating layer, MIS-like transistors H01L29/806 takes precedence; with one dimensional electron gas H01L29/775; with dimensional electron gas H01L29/778
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/88 Tunnel-effect diodes
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/113 being of the conductor-insulator-semiconductor type, e.g. metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/0037 having a MIS barrier layer

Abstract

A semiconductor device having a sandwich construction formed by causing a semiconductor region and an opposed region to face each other across a thin film which is made of a substance having a wider forbidden band gap than that of the semiconductor region and having a barrier relative to the semiconductor region. The so-formed device exhibits various effects such as amplification, negative resistance, switching, voltage or current generation, photo-electric conversion, and light-emission either upon irradiation with light or upon application of a power source thereon.

Claims

1. A semiconductor device comprising:

a semiconductor region of a first conductivity type having a first surface,

an opposed region disposed to face the first surface of said semiconductor region,

a thin film interposed between said semiconductor region and said opposed region, made of a substance having a forbidden band gap wider than that of said semiconductor region and a barrier relative to said semiconductor region, said thin film having a thickness permitting carriers to flow therethrough by tunneling,

means for creating an electrically induced inversion layer kept by said barrier of the interposed thin film in the first surface of said semiconductor region at a position facing said opposed region,

a carrier injection means for injecting carriers of said first conductivity type from said opposed region to said inversion layer in the semiconductor region through said thin film by tunneling, and

a third region of opposite conductivity formed in the surface of said semiconductor region forming a rectifying junction in conjunction with said semiconductor region, said region of opposite conductivity being in electrical contact with said inversion layer,

said opposed region, said inversion layer, said region of opposite conductivity and said semiconductor region being used as an emitter, an induced base, a base contact and a collector of bipolar transmission, respectively.