Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices – circuits – and – Gating – Utilizing three or more electrode solid-state device
Reexamination Certificate
1994-06-30
2001-05-15
Cunningham, Terry D. (Department: 2816)
Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and
Gating
Utilizing three or more electrode solid-state device
C327S188000, C327S574000, C327S580000, C327S529000, C327S498000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06232822
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device using a bipolar transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a bipolar transistor has been employed as a current amplifying element which receives a base current as an input and outputs a collector current. For example, when positive collector-emitter voltage V
CE
and base-emitter voltage V
BE
(V
CE
>V
BE
) are applied to an npn bipolar transistor, collector current I
C
takes amplified positive values with respect to various values of base-emitter voltage V
BE
, and in this case, base current I
B
is also positive.
Since the conventional bipolar transistor can only perform a predetermined operation, this transistor has a limited application range.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor device using a novel bipolar transistor which can flow a negative base current in addition to a positive base current depending on a base potential.
According to the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device using a bipolar transistor having a base, an emitter, a collector, a base-emitter junction and a collector-base junction, the bipolar transistor having a first operating region such that with a positive base-emitter voltage V
BE
, in a first range and a predetermined positive collector-emitter voltage V
CE
, a positive base current I
B
is produced, a second operating region such that with a positive base-emitter voltage V
BE
in a second range greater than the first range and said positive collector-base emitter voltage V
CE
, a negative base current I
B
is produced, said positive collector-emitter voltage V
BE
being determined so that the negative base current I
B
is produced by impact ionization in the second operating region, and a third operating region such that with a positive base-emitter voltage V
BE
in a third range greater than the second range and said positive collector-emitter voltage V
CE
, a positive base current I
B
is produced; and means for biasing the bipolar transistor to operate with the positive collector-emitter voltage V
CE
and at a boundary potential between the second and third operating regions.
In the above-mentioned semiconductor device, a collector-emitter voltage is set to be a high voltage, so that reverse base current I
CB
in the collector-base path is larger than the forward base current I
BE
in the base-emitter path can flow upon a change in base potential, i.e., base-emitter voltage V
BE
, and a transistor in which a base current has not only a positive region but also a negative region can be realized. The bipolar transistor and an FET can be combined to realize a semiconductor device with higher degree of integration.
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Aritome Seiichi
Fuse Tsuneaki
Hasegawa Takehiro
Horiguchi Fumio
Masuoka Fujio
Cunningham Terry D.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
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