High performance CMOS compatible bistable operation at extremely low supply voltage by a novel Si interband tunneling diode

The supply voltage of Si ULSIs must be reduced below 0.5 V, the lower limit for conventional CMOS, in order to suppress power consumption. A quantum effect device is one of the most promising candidates to overcome this problem. However, few devices have been proposed to achieve CMOS compatible bistable operation (i.e. maximum output voltage is equal to supply voltage) below 0.5 V at room temperature using Si. The purpose of this work is to realise CMOS compatible bistable operation below 0.5 V at room temperature by means of a novel interband tunneling diode using Si materials, and to demonstrate the possibilities of such a device for multistate memory.