Circuit and device including a transistor and diode
AssigneeUniversity of Nottingham Innovation Park
InventorsDavid Summerland, Roger Light, Luke Knight
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An inverter logic circuit includes a bipolar junction transistor and a zener diode. The zener diode is connected between the base of the bipolar junction transistor and ground (or other reference voltage). The zener diode is reverse biased such that a leakage current through the zener diode allows for sufficient current through the emitter-base terminals of the bipolar junction transistor when a voltage is applied across the emitter and base terminals of the bipolar junction transistor to turn the transistor ON in the absence of an external signal to the base. As such the bipolar junction transistor functions as a normally ON bipolar junction transistor.
Claims9
A semiconductor device comprising:
- a bipolar transistor comprises:
- first and second regions of a first type of semiconductor material that provide collector and emitter regions of the bipolar transistor, and a first region of a second type of semiconductor material, which provides a base region of the bipolar transistor, interposed between and in contact with each of the first and second regions of the first type of semiconductor material, the first region of the second type of semiconductor material comprising a relatively highly doped portion;
- and
- a diode comprises:
- the relatively highly doped portion of the first region of the second type of semiconductor material;
- and
- a further region of the first type of semiconductor material that is non-contiguous with the first and second regions of the first type of semiconductor material, the further region of the first type of semiconductor material being in contact with a highly doped portion of the first region of the second type of semiconductor material to form a diode junction;
- and
- the semiconductor device comprises an electrical terminal connected to the further region of the first type of semiconductor that provides a terminal of the diode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.