The MESFET as an optically activated microwave switch-theory and experiment

Author

Madjar, A. ; Paolella, A. ; Herczfeld, P.R.

Author_Institution

Technion-Israel Inst. of Technol., Haifa, Israel

fYear

1993

Firstpage

1399

Abstract

A novel model for the optical switching of the MESFET is presented. The model is based on basic principles, and predicts the optical switching performance as a function of the optical signal parameters, the bias level, and the device physics and geometry. The results and conclusions from the theory are verified by measurements. Both the theoretical and experimental results indicate that standard commercially available microwave MESFETs are not fast optical switches, and that their response time runs in the microsecond range. The proposed model can serve as a tool for designing an optimal MESFET for optical switching purposes.<>

Keywords

Schottky gate field effect transistors; photoconducting devices; semiconductor device models; semiconductor switches; solid-state microwave devices; MESFET; bias level; device geometry; device physics; model; optical signal parameters; optical switching; optically activated microwave switch; response time; Delay; Geometrical optics; MESFETs; Microwave devices; Optical design; Optical devices; Optical switches; Physics; Predictive models; Solid modeling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1993., IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1209-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1993.276736

Filename

276736