NEGATIVE RESISTANCE IN SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

Abstract

Negative resistance can appear in the static and high-frequency characteristics of devices in which the current is determined by both voltage and temperature. The properties of the a-c. impedance arising from the interaction of thermal and non-thermal effects are discussed and criteria for the appearance of negative resistance over certain ranges of frequency are derived. The application of this analysis to devices which do and which do not exhibit isothermal negative resistance is considered. In an Appendix, a current-temperature relation depending on two activation energies is shown to provide a quantitative model for interpreting the observed turnover behavior of germanium diodes.