Planar Heterostructure Barrier Varactor Diodes for Millimetre Wave Applications
Doctoral thesis, 1999

This thesis deals with fabrication, characterisation and modelling of the Heterostructure Barrier Varactor (HBV) diode and its use in frequency multiplier applications. Different aspects of material structures and frequency multipliers are described. The aim of the work presented is to develop design methods and processes to fabricate state-of-the-art planar HBVs and multipliers in the millimetre and submillimetre wave length region. Results from AlGaAs HBV frequency tripler measurements are presented. Simulations and cooled measurements show that excessive conduction current due to self-heating degrades the multiplier efficiency. A new design of planar GaAs-based HBVs with reduced thermal resistance and series resistance have been fabricated. A state-of-the-art performance of 4,8% efficiency and an output power of 4 mW at 246 GHz was achieved. A novel fabrication process where HBV diodes are fabricated on a copper substrate is proposed. This reduces thermal resistance and parasitic resistance without degrading the electrical characteristics. A 141 GHz quasi-optical HBV tripler is presented. A peak flange-to-flange efficiency of 8% and an output power of 11,5 mW was achieved. Different III-V material systems for HBVs have been tested. The results of lattice matched and pseudomorphic GaAs/AlGaAs, InGaAs/InAlAs, InAs/AlSb and phosphide containing materials for HBVs are presented. The state-of-the-art material for millimetre and submillimetre wave HBVs is the In0,53GaAs/In0,52AlAs system with a thin AlAs layer (30 Å) in the middle of the barrier. Both simple analytical models and a self-consistent Poisson/Schroedinger approach are used to predict and optimise HBV diodes. Finally, a simple quick-design method for calculation of optimum embedding impedances, optimum conversion efficiency and pump power for HBV triplers are presented.

millimetre- and sub-millimetre wave power source

III-V semiconductor

varactor diode

frequency multiplier

Heterostructure Barrier Varactor (HBV)

Opponent: Dr. Thomas W. Crowe, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

Author

Jan Stake

Department of Microelectronics

Improved Diode Geometry for Planar Heterostructure Barrier Varactors

Tenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology,; (1999)p. 485-491

Paper in proceeding

Heterostructure Barrier Varactors on Copper Substrate

Electronics Letters,; Vol. 35(1999)p. 339-341

Journal article

Analysis of Symmetric Varactor Frequency Multipliers

Microwave and Optical Technology Letters,; Vol. 15(1997)p. 26-29

Journal article

Effects of Self-Heating on Planar Heterostructure Barrier Varactor Diodes

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,; Vol. 45(1998)p. 2298-2303

Journal article

An On-Wafer Method for C-V Characterisation of Heterostructure Diodes

Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett.,; Vol. 9(1995)p. 63-66

Journal article

A 141-GHz Quasi-Optical HBV Diode Frequency Tripler

Tenth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology,; (1999)p. 492-500

Paper in proceeding

AlGaAs/GaAs and InAlAs/InGaAs Heterostructure Barrier Varactors

Journal of Applied Physics,; Vol. 82(1997)p. 5568-5572

Journal article

Heterostructure-Barrier-Varactor Design

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques,; Vol. 48(2000)p. 677-682

Journal article

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

ISBN

91-7197-774-0

Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie

Opponent: Dr. Thomas W. Crowe, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

More information

Created

10/7/2017