Esaki diode
E186747
The Esaki diode is a heavily doped semiconductor tunnel diode that exhibits negative differential resistance, enabling high-speed and microwave-frequency electronic applications.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Esaki diode canonical | 6 |
| tunnel diode | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1653535 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Esaki diode Context triple: [Leo Esaki, knownFor, Esaki diode]
-
A.
Shockley diode equation
The Shockley diode equation is a fundamental formula in semiconductor physics that describes the current–voltage relationship of an ideal p–n junction diode.
-
B.
surface-barrier transistor
The surface-barrier transistor is an early high-frequency, high-speed transistor design that used metal contacts formed on a very thin germanium base, enabling faster operation than earlier point-contact and alloy-junction transistors.
-
C.
Nernst–Lamp
The Nernst–Lamp is an early type of electric lamp that used a heated ceramic rod as a light-emitting element and played a significant role in the development of incandescent lighting technology.
-
D.
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was a pioneering Silicon Valley research and development company founded by Nobel laureate William Shockley that became the seed for many later semiconductor firms, including those started by the "traitorous eight."
-
E.
BJT
BJT is an abbreviation for Beijing Time, the standard time used throughout mainland China.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Esaki diode Target entity description: The Esaki diode is a heavily doped semiconductor tunnel diode that exhibits negative differential resistance, enabling high-speed and microwave-frequency electronic applications.
-
A.
Shockley diode equation
The Shockley diode equation is a fundamental formula in semiconductor physics that describes the current–voltage relationship of an ideal p–n junction diode.
-
B.
surface-barrier transistor
The surface-barrier transistor is an early high-frequency, high-speed transistor design that used metal contacts formed on a very thin germanium base, enabling faster operation than earlier point-contact and alloy-junction transistors.
-
C.
Nernst–Lamp
The Nernst–Lamp is an early type of electric lamp that used a heated ceramic rod as a light-emitting element and played a significant role in the development of incandescent lighting technology.
-
D.
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was a pioneering Silicon Valley research and development company founded by Nobel laureate William Shockley that became the seed for many later semiconductor firms, including those started by the "traitorous eight."
-
E.
BJT
BJT is an abbreviation for Beijing Time, the standard time used throughout mainland China.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
electronic component
ⓘ
semiconductor device ⓘ tunnel diode ⓘ |
| advantage |
useful for compact microwave circuits
ⓘ
very high speed due to tunneling ⓘ |
| basedOnPrinciple |
overlap of conduction and valence bands in heavily doped junctions
ⓘ
quantum tunneling ⓘ |
| commercializedIn | 1960s ⓘ |
| contributedTo | development of quantum tunneling devices ⓘ |
| developedBy | Leo Esaki ⓘ |
| discoveredIn | 1957 ⓘ |
| fieldOfUse |
high-speed electronics
ⓘ
microwave engineering ⓘ quantum electronics ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
N-shaped I–V curve
ⓘ
exhibits quantum mechanical tunneling ⓘ fast switching speed ⓘ heavily doped ⓘ low forward voltage region with high current ⓘ negative differential resistance ⓘ negative resistance region between peak and valley ⓘ nonlinear current–voltage characteristic ⓘ operates at microwave frequencies ⓘ peak current region ⓘ valley current region ⓘ |
| limitation |
complex biasing requirements
ⓘ
narrow operating voltage range ⓘ sensitive to temperature variations ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Leo Esaki ⓘ |
| notableRecognition | related to Leo Esaki’s Nobel Prize in Physics 1973 ⓘ |
| operatesInRegion |
forward-bias tunneling region
ⓘ
negative differential resistance region ⓘ normal diode conduction region ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Gunn diode
ⓘ
backward diode ⓘ resonant tunneling diode ⓘ |
| usedFor |
fast pulse generation
ⓘ
frequency converters ⓘ high-frequency oscillators ⓘ high-speed switching ⓘ logic circuits ⓘ memory circuits ⓘ microwave amplifiers ⓘ microwave oscillators ⓘ voltage-controlled oscillators ⓘ |
| usesMaterial |
gallium arsenide
ⓘ
germanium ⓘ heavily doped p–n junction ⓘ other compound semiconductors ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Esaki diode Description of subject: The Esaki diode is a heavily doped semiconductor tunnel diode that exhibits negative differential resistance, enabling high-speed and microwave-frequency electronic applications.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
tunnel diode