Integration of an Anti-parallel Pair of Planar Schottky Barrier Diodes forMillimeter and Submillimeter Wavelengths

摘要

The focus of this work is the development of an anti-parallel pair of planargallium arsenide Schottky barrier diodes, integrated on a monolithic chip. This chip was designed for integration into subharmonically pumped heterodyne receivers which are used to detect radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The advantage of such a receiver is that it uses a local oscillator source at half the frequency required by a fundamentally pumped receiver. They are therefore useful in environments that preclude the use of high frequency oscillators, such a lasers, that are bulky and have significant power requirements. Also, the use of a planar diode technology eliminates the fragile whisker contact, thus allowing the fabrication of multi-diode circuits. The combination of planar diodes and subharmonically pumped receivers is ideally suited for space applications, such as the Microwave Limb Sounder of NASA's Earth Observing System satellites which will conduct long term studies of Earth's upper atmosphere. The diode pair, which was designed and fabricated in this research, has exhibited excellent electrical characteristics. These diodes contained anodes as small as 1.2 micrometers. This is the first use of anodes smaller than 2.5 micrometers on a planar diode. Also, excellent mixing results were observed with Aerojet-General Corporation's G-band (183 GHz) subharmonically pumped receiver. This is the first successful application of a planar diode technology at a frequency significantly above 100 GHz.