NOVEL SEMICONDUCTOR TUNNELING DEVICES FOR MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS

The recent increase in the number of communications systems required f or both civil and military uses has led to interest in improving the s emiconductor devices which lie at the heart of many transmitters and r eceivers. This paper describes some recent advances in the area of sem iconductor tunnelling devices, in which electrical conduction occurs p rimarily by quantum-mechanical tunnelling. It discusses how such tunne lling devices have some advantages over conventional devices for use i n certain microwave communication systems.