Design, fabrication and characterization of Ino.23Gao.77As-channel planar Gunn diodes for millimeter wave applications

摘要

We present detailed design, fabrication and characterization of In_(0.23)Gaa_(0.77)As-based planar Gunn diodes in this paper. The devices have AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs heterojunctions that were grown on a semi-insulating GaAs wafer using molecular beam epitaxy technology. Electron beam lithography was used to define anode and cathode terminal patterns. Devices with various anode-cathode separations (e.g. 4-1.4 urn) were fabricated on the same chip. Spectrum measurements showed oscillation frequencies between 36 GHz and 118 GHz in the fundamental transit-time mode of operation. These devices show great potential as millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave signal sources for their small size, MMIC compatibility and lithographically controlled oscillation frequencies.