A functional InGaP/GaAs double heterostructure-emitter bipolar transistor (DHEBT) is fabricated and demonstrated. Due to the large valence band discontinuity to conduction band discontinuity ratio at InGaP/GaAs heterojunction and the symmetrical structure, excellent transistor performances with a high current gain of 195 and a low collector-emitter (C-E) offset voltage of 60 mV are achieved. In particular, attributed to the avalanche multiplication and confinement effect for electrons at InGaP/GaAs heterojunction, an interesting multiple S-shaped negative-differential-resistance (NDR) switches is observed under large C-E forward voltage. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.