Tunneling-assisted IMPATT operation

Author

Luy, Johann Friedrich ; Kuehnf, Reinhart

Author_Institution

AEG Forschung Forschungsinstitut, Ulm, West Germany

Volume

36

Issue

3

fYear

1989

fDate

3/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

589

Lastpage

595

Abstract

The influence of tunneling on the efficiency of millimeter-wave IMPATT diodes is investigated. For a reliable estimation of this influence, the tunnel generation rate coefficients are measured from silicon p-i-n diodes. The Read equation is solved taking a time-dependent tunnel current into account. The phase distortion, which is responsible for the efficiency degradation caused by tunneling, is calculated analytically and numerically. It is shown that for an exact solution the injected current density should be calculated numerically. The results suggest that for efficient silicon IMPATT diode operation, the maximum electric field should be below 1×10⁶ V/cm. Due to the current and field dependent representation of the injection phase, there are direct consequences on the design of millimeter- and submillimeter-wave transit time diodes for high power generation as well as for low-noise operation

Keywords

IMPATT diodes; microwave generation; semiconductor device models; EHF; IMPATT diode operation; Read equation; SMMW; Si; Si p-i-n diodes; efficiency; efficiency degradation; exact solution; high power generation; influence of tunneling; injected current density; low-noise operation; maximum electric field; millimeter-wave IMPATT diodes; phase distortion; submillimeter-wave; time-dependent tunnel current; transit time diodes; tunnel generation rate coefficients; Current density; Degradation; Distortion measurement; Equations; Millimeter wave measurements; P-i-n diodes; Phase distortion; Power generation; Silicon; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.19971

Filename

19971