A novel Schottky barrier silicon-on-insulator metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor featuring metallic source/drain and an electrical drain junction has been fabricated and characterized. The formation of electrical drain junction, or the field-induced drain (FID), is controlled by a metal field-plate overlying the passivation oxide. Excellent ambipolar operation is demonstrated on the device. Specifically, on/off current ratios up to 10(8) and 10(7) are observed for p- and n-channel operations, respectively. Meanwhile, the off-state leakage current shows very weak dependence on the voltage difference between the main-gate and the drain, highlighting the effectiveness of FID. Finally, negative differential conductance effect is observed for n-channel operation, which is identified as due to dynamic hot electron trapping during device characterization. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.