Metal-insulator-metal (MIM)

diode A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode ...

is a type of nonlinear device very similar to a

semiconductor diode A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode ...

that is capable of very fast operation. Depending on the geometry and the material used for fabrication, the operation mechanisms are governed either by

quantum tunnelling Quantum tunnelling, also known as tunneling ( US) is a quantum mechanical phenomenon whereby a wavefunction can propagate through a potential barrier. The transmission through the barrier can be finite and depends exponentially on the barrier h ...

or thermal activation. In 1948, Torrey et al. stated that "It should be possible to make metal-insulator-metal

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...

s with much smaller spreading resistances than metal-semiconductor rectifiers have, consequently giving greater rectification efficiency at high frequencies". But due to fabrication difficulties, two decades passed before the first device could be successfully created. Some of the very first MIM diodes to be fabricated came from

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

in the late 1960s and early 1970s Brinkman et al. demonstrated the first zero-bias MIM

tunneling diode A tunnel diode or Esaki diode is a type of semiconductor diode that has effectively "negative resistance" due to the quantum mechanical effect called tunneling. It was invented in August 1957 by Leo Esaki, Yuriko Kurose, and Takashi Suzuki ...

with significant responsivity. When they are using tunneling transport, the MIM diode can be very fast. As soon as 1974, this diode was reportedly used as a mixer at 88 THz in a setup of the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

. Thanks to recent researches the zero-bias responsivity of the MIM diode (15 A/W) is now very close to the one of

Schottky diode The Schottky diode (named after the German physicist Walter H. Schottky), also known as Schottky barrier diode or hot-carrier diode, is a semiconductor diode formed by the junction of a semiconductor with a metal. It has a low forward voltage ...

(19.4 A/W).M. L. Chin, P. Periasamy, T. P. O'Regan, M. Amani, C. Tan, R. P. O'Hayre, et al., "Planar metal-insulator-metal diodes based on the Nb/Nb2O5/X material system", Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, vol. 31, pp. 051204-051204-8, 2013. Se
article
Today MIM diode is the cornerstone of the ongoing

nantenna An optical rectenna is a rectenna (rectifying antenna) that works with visible or infrared light. A rectenna is a circuit containing an antenna and a diode, which turns electromagnetic waves into direct current electricity. While rectennas have l ...

developments. They are also used as

thin-film diode Thin film diode (TFD) generally refers to any diode produced using thin-film technology. Within the flat panel display industry TFD more often refers to thin film bi-directional diodes, also known as metal-insulator-metal (MIM) TFDs or nonlinear ...

by the

flat-panel display A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment. Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better li ...

manufacturers. In contrast to MIM diodes, metal-insulator-insulator-metal (MIIM) diodes have two insulator layers.

MIG diode

Metal-insulator-

graphene Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure.

(MIG) diodes are also under active research.

References

{{Reflist

External links

New diode features optically controlled capacitance

Optical control of capacitance in a metal-insulator-semiconductor diode with embedded metal nanoparticles
Diodes Plasmonics

MIG diode

See also

References

External links