Investigation of InGaP/GaAs double heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistor with multiple negative-differential-resistance switches

A functional InGaP/GaAs double heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistor is fabricated and demonstrated. Due to the large valence band discontinuity to conduction band discontinuity ratio at the InGaP/GaAs heterojunction and the symmetrical structure, excellent transistor performance, with a high current gain of 195 and a low collector-emitter (C-E) offset voltage of 60 mV, is achieved. In particular, attributed to the avalanche multiplication and confinement effect for electrons at the InGaP/GaAs heterojunction, interesting multiple S-shaped negative-differential-resistance switches are observed under large C-E forward voltage.