| abstract |
A semiconductor device includes a thyristor designed to reduce or eliminate manufacturing and operational difficulties commonly experienced in the formation and operation of NDR devices. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, the semiconductor substrate is trenched adjacent a doped or dopable substrate region, which is formed to included at least two vertically-adjacent thyristor regions of different polarity. A capacitively-coupled control port for the thyristor is coupled to at least one of the thyristor regions. The trench also includes a dielectric material for electrically insulating the vertically-adjacent thyristor regions. The thyristor is electrically connected to other circuitry in the device, such as a transistor, and used to form a device, such as a memory cell. |