Millimeter high burnout GaAs Schottky barrier diodes

Schottky barrier mixer and detector diodes designed for Ka-band and higher frequencies have an extremely small active area (10 µm²or less) and therefore are very susceptible to RF and accidental electrostatic burnout. Gallium arsenide Schottky barrier diodes exhibit lower noise figure, compared to silicon Schottky diodes and are generally preferred over X-band frequencies for mixer applications. The gallium arsenide Schottky barrier diodes fabricated with two different high temperature barrier metals were investigated for rf and electrostatic burnout. A recently developed titanium-tungsten (10% Ti, 90% W) - GaAs Schottky barrier diode was found to be the least sensitive to electrostatic discharge and exhibited rf burnout (τ = 1 µsec, 10³pps) of 1.5 -2 watts at 36 GHz. This burnout level is three to four times better than most GaAs Schottky barrier diodes manufactured today. These Ti-W-GaAs diodes also exhibit nearly ideal electrical characteristics (η=1.08) and low noise figure of 3.5 (DSB) at Ka-band frequencies.