Instead of producing individual DSRDs and bonding them, Tunnel DSRD's entire stack structure is grown epitaxially on a n- or p-type silicon wafer, resulting in a novel, “monolithic” stacked DSRD. A tunnel diode is essentially a diode with very highly doped p and n regions such that the reverse breakdown voltage is 200 meV or lower.
For cooling a high power device, the novel approach is to use a thermoelectric cooler (TEC)-based embedded substrate with proper selection of the TEC material as an active cooler. The packaging configuration of TEC allows cooling the entire die without the use of a fluid. The process is compatible with the thin film TEC material. Standard semiconductor processes can be used to manufacture…
LLNL researchers faced this challenge by bridging the gap between VEDs and solid-state electronics (SSE). Their approach was to create a hybrid vacuum microelectronic device (VMD) architecture that combines the properties of vacuum as the electronic medium and the compact form factor and manufacturing scalability of semiconductor microelectronic chips.
The approach is to use Charge Balance Layers (CBLs) to create a superjunction device in wide bandgap materials. These CBLs enable the device to effectively spread the electric field over 2- or 3-dimensions within a semiconductor voltage sustaining layer instead of 1-dimension, thereby increasing the maximum voltage a device is capable of withstanding. The challenge of using CBLs is the…