Cascaded resonant tunneling diode quantizer for analog-to-digital flash conversion

We propose and model an application of cascaded resonant tunneling diodes t o flash analog-to-digital conversion. We connect diodes of linearly increas ing area in series, with separate contacts to interconnecting doped layers between the diodes. When a voltage is applied to the structure, the linearl y changing diode size determines which of the diodes switch to the valley c urrent, while the interconnecting contacts allow for a differential voltage measurement that accomplishes the signal quantization. The resulting flash quantizer has an estimated frequency operating limit in the gigahertz rang e. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.