In Plane Metal-Oxide-Oxide-Metal Diode Prepared by Selective Anodization
It is expected that the Moore’s law progression of CMOS technology will end in less than two decades, and there is a worldwide search for new devices that can either extend Moore’s law or provide a totally new pathway for information processing and communication. Using metals instead of semiconductors and in-plane structures rather than transverse to the plane structures can increase the operating frequency of a diode since the RC time constant can be significantly reduced at any lithographic scale, and there is promise for a concomitant reduction in the power dissipation of such a device.This invention describes a novel diode structure that can provide the basic element for such a new paradigm shift, as it can provide similar functionality to a semiconductor diode utilizing metal electrodes and metal oxide tunnel barriers produced by a novel electrochemical technique that relaxes many of the geometrical considerations for traditional tunnel junction devices. Similar techniques have been applied to make superconducting tunnel junctions, which are cryogenic devices. The embodiment disclosed here, however, is for a room temperature diode that does not at all rely on superconducting electrodes and furthermore provides a diode- like very asymmetric current voltage (I-V) characteristic rather than just a highly non-linear symmetric I-V characteristic that is typical for a tunnel junction.
The current invention has significant advantages over semiconductor diodes. These diodes are very easy to fabricate and utilize transport in the plane of the metal films rather than requiring a multilayer structure. Since the electrodes are metals and the barriers can be tuned over large resistance ranges, these diodes can be very fast and operate at lower voltages and lower power than semiconductor diodes. Potential applications of the technology include use in small electronic devices such as cell phones, PDAs and MP3 players that would benefit from the low power consumption and high speed, as well as use in very high frequency detectors and mixers used in high-performance signal processors.
Inventor(s): Wolf, Friedersdorf, Lu, Kirkwood, West
Type of Offer: Licensing
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