Surface-Oriented Transferred-Electron Devices

The application of MESFET technology to the manufacturing of surface-oriented transferred-electron devices (TED´s) with parmeters close to GaAs MESFET´s is discussed. The limitations related to the contact resistance, fringing capacitance, domain formation time, impact ionization, and heat sinking are analyzed for GaAs and InP devices. Our estimates show that the surface-oriented devices can be used as microwave LSA generators at higher frequencies than the conventional LSA diodes. In a domain mode, the surface-oriented TED´s can yield low values of the power-delay product comparable to those of GaAs MESFET´s at higher speeds. The analysis of impact ionization within a high-field domain leads to a conclusion that even InP logic devices with practical lengths of the active layer can be manufactured with doping densities up to 10¹⁷cm^-3. The estimate of the temperature rise indicates that a CW operation is possible for practical device parameters. Because the parameters of surface-oriented TED´s are similar to those of GaAs MESFET´s they may be manufactured using the rapidly developing GaAs integrated-circuit technology and used in combination with GaAs MESFET´s.