On the nature of the instabilities of bistable electron devices

Abstract

The intrinsic bistability in resonant tunneling devices and its application for multilevel logic devices is examined. The results indicate that commonly accepted bistability is actually a tristability. The third stable configuration could have a major effect in the operation of high speed logic devices. Furthermore, the nature of the third state in a bistable system results in a better understanding of the mechanism which is commonly associated with bistable systems.