Design, Manufacture and Performance of Monolithic PIN Diodes for Beam Steered Reflectarray

A novel technology is described for fabricating monolithic PIN diodes for use as switching devices in a circularly polarised reflectarray antenna. The process is based on silicon-on-silicide-on-insulator (SSOI) substrates. These have the advantage of a buried silicide contact layer of high conductivity, which also provides a dopant diffusion conduit, and a buried oxide providing low parasitic capacitance. In this initial prototype, the diode series resistance is consistently 10 Omega. The technique is believed to be a reliable, low complexity and cost effective method of producing a multi dipole reflectarray.