Theory and experimental characteristics of a tunnel triode

The tunnel triode, which could perhaps be more correctly described as a double based tunnel diode, has the negative resistance characteristics of its tunnel junction influenced by an ohmic, lateral current flow in one of the degenerate regions which for this purpose has two ohmic contacts. Since the tunnel characteristics cannot readily be represented by analytic functions, the performance of the device was evaluated with the aid of a computer. For this purpose a fixed tunnel characteristic for an elemental junction area was assumed and this was then integrated across the junction face for various bias currents. A num ber of geometries were investigated and the results are shown. The characteristics thus obtained show good agreement with those measured of fabricated devices. Multi-valued current-voltage operation is considered for two configurations.