Analysis of potential high power failure in millimetric Schottky barrier diodes

An experimental and theoretical study has been made of the characteristics, performance, and limitations of a Schottky barrier diode operating as a power sampler at 35 GHz. The Schottky diode is used to rectify incident power at 35 GHz, the resulting DC current is used to pre-bias a waveguide mounted PIN diode into a low impedance, high attenuation state. The diode junction is frequently subjected to comparatively high levels of incident RF power and for a variety of reasons it is important to know how the diode responds in this environment. For instance, the designer needs to know what is the maximum, worst case, safe power level that the device can withstand. Equally, it is important to know whether the diode, together with its associated microwave circuitry, will respond quickly enough at the onset of incident power, which factors will affect conversion efficiency, and likely performance at higher frequencies, notably 60 GHz and 94 GHz