Gallium Nitride Semiconductor Resonant Tunneling Transistor

Semiconductor devices based on quantum tunneling hold immense promise for developing multi-valued logic, memory, and oscillators. Recently, two-terminal gallium nitride (GaN) resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) have been extensively studied due to their inherent negative differential resistance (NDR) and superior properties of wide bandgap materials. However, conventional GaN RTDs lack current gain, limiting functional modulation and performance improvement. Here, we demonstrate three-terminal GaN resonant tunneling transistors (RTTs), which comprise an AlN/GaN double-barrier RTD integrated with a GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) through epitaxial growth. The GaN RTTs exhibit gate-tunable NDR behavior through precise control of carrier concentration in the HEMT channel. Remarkably, the series-connected RTT achieves an NDR voltage span of 4.1 V compared to the 0.41 V span in conventional RTDs, and the parallel-configured RTT achieves 10 times amplification of peak current by regulating gate voltage. This work provides a feasible approach to tune NDR performance and offers a new opportunity for engineering the functionality of nitride-based electronics, which is highly expected to alleviate the challenge posed by the saturation of Moore's law and motivate the development of beyond binary logic systems.