2000 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume 48 Number 6, June 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

Fabrication and Performance of InP-Based Heterostructure Barrier Varactors in a 250-GHz Waveguide Tripler

Xavier Mélique, Alain Maestrini, Robert Farré, Patrick Mounaix, Michel Favreau, Olivier Vanbésien, Jean-Marc Goutoule, Francis Mollot, Gérard Beaudin, Senior Member, IEEE Tapani Närhi, Member, IEEE and Didier Lippens

Page 1000.

Abstract:

High-performance InGaAs/InAlAs/AlAs heterostructure barrier varactors (HBV's) have been designed, fabricated, and RF tested in a 250-GHz tripler block. The devices with two barriers stacked on the same epitaxy are planar integrated with coaxial-, coplanar-, and strip-type configurations. They exhibit state-of-the-art capacitance voltage characteristics with a zero-bias capacitance Cj0 of 1 fF/µm2 and a capacitance ratio of 6: 1. Experiments in a waveguide tripler mount show a 9.8-dBm (9.55-mW) output power for 10.7% conversion efficiency at 247.5 GHz. This is the highest output power and efficiency reported from an HBV device at J-band (220-325 GHz).

References

  1. E. Kollberg and A. Rydberg, "Quantum-barrier-varactor diodes for high-efficiency millimeter wave multipliers", Electron. Lett., vol. 25, pp.  1696-1697,  Dec.  1989.
  2. A. Rydberg, H. Grönqvist and E. Kollberg, "Millimeter-and submillimeter-wave multipliers using quantum barrier-varactor (QBV) diodes", IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 11, pp.  373 -375, Sept.  1990.
  3. D. Choudhury, M. A. Frerking and P. D. Batelaan, "A 200-GHz tripler using a single barrier varactor", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 41, pp.  595-599, Apr.  1993.
  4. J. Stake, L. Dillner, S. H. Jones, C. M. Mann, J. Thornton, J. R. Jones, W. L. Bishop and E. Kollbert, "Effects of self heating on planar heterostructure barrier varactor diodes", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 45, pp.  179-182, Nov.  1998.
  5. X. Mélique, C. Mann, P. Mounaix, J. Thornton, O. Vanbésien, F. Mollot and D. Lippens, "5-mW and 5% efficiency 216 GHz InP-based heterostructure barrier varactor tripler", IEEE Microwave Guided Wave Lett., vol. 8, pp.  384-386,  Nov.  1998.
  6. A. Rahal, R. G. Bosisio, C. Rogers, J. Ovey, M. Sawan and M. Missous, "A W -band medium power multistack quantum barrier varactor frequency multiplier", IEEE Microwave Guided Wave Lett., vol. 5, pp.  368-370, Nov.  1995.
  7. J. R. Jones, W. L. Bishop, S. H. Jones and G. B. Tait, "Planar multibarrier 80/240-GHz heterostructure barrier varactor triplers", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 45, pp.  512-518, Apr.  1997.
  8. K. Krisnamurthi, S. M. Nilsen and R. G. Harrison, "GaAs Single-barrier varactors for millimeter-wave triplers: Guidelines for enhanced performances", IEEE Trans. Theory Tech., vol. 42, pp.  2512-2516, Dec.  1994.
  9. A. Rahal, E. Boch, C. Rogers, J. Ovey and R. G. Bosisio, "Planar multistack quantum barrier varactor tripler evaluation at W -band", Electron. Lett., vol. 31, pp.  2022-2023, 1995.
  10. K. Krisnamurthi and R. G. Harrison, "Millimeter-wave frequency tripling using stacked heterostructure barrier varactor on InP", in IEEE Proc. Microwave Antennas Propagat., vol. 143, Aug. 1996, pp.  272- 276. 
  11. A. V. Räisäinen, T. J. Tolmunen, M. Natzic, M. A. Frerking, E. Brown, H. Grönqvist and S. M. Nilsen, "A single barrier quintupler at 170 GHz", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43, pp.  685-688, Mar.  1995.
  12. E. Lheurette, P. Mounaix, P. Salzenstein, F. Mollot and D. Lippens, "High performance InP-based heterostructure barrier varactor in single and stack configuration", Electron. Lett., vol. 32, pp.  1417-1418, July  1996.
  13. V. K. Reddy and D. P. Neikirk, "High breakdown voltage AlAs/InGaAs quantum barrier varactor diodes", Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp.  465-466, Mar.  1993.
  14. R. Havart, E. Lheurette, O. Vanbésien, P. Mounaix, F. Mollot and D. Lippens, "Step-like heterostructure barrier varactor", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 45, pp.  2291-2297,  Nov.  1998.
  15. E. Kollberg, T. J. Tolmunen, M. A. Frerking and J. East, "Current saturation in submillimeter wave varactors", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 40, pp.  831-838, 1992.
  16. E. Lheurette, X. Mélique, P. Mounaix, F. Mollot, O. Vanbésien and D. Lippens, "Capacitance engineering for InP-based heterostructure barrier varactor", IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 19, pp.  338 -340, Sept.  1998.
  17. V. Duez, X. Mélique, O. Vanbésien, P. Mounaix, F. Mollot and D. Lippens, "High capacitance ratio with GaAs/InGaAs/AlAs heterostructure quantum well-barrier varactors", Electron. Lett., vol. 34, pp.  1860-1861,  Sept.  1998.
  18. B. Gemont and M. Shur, "Spreading resistance of around ohmic contact", Solid State Electron., vol. 36, pp.  143-146, 1993.
  19. J. Carbonell, R. Havart, X. Mélique, P. Mounaix, O. Vanbésien, J. M. Goutoule and D. Lippens, "Reverse engineering through electromagnetic and harmonic balance simulations", in Proc. European Microwave Conf., Amsterdam, The Netherlands,Oct. 1998, pp.  123-128. 
  20. X. Mélique, J. Carbonell, R. Havart, P. Mounaix, O. Vanbésien and D. Lippens, "InGaAs/InAlAs/AlAs heterostructure barrier varactors for harmonic multiplication", IEEE Microwave Guided Wave Lett., vol. 8, pp.  254-256,  July  1998.
  21. J. Archer, "An efficient 200-290 GHz frequency tripler incorporating a novel stripline structure", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-32, pp.  416-420, Apr.  1984.
  22. L. Dillner and E. Kollberg, private communication.
  23. S. Arscott, P. Mounaix and D. Lippens, "Transferred InP-based HBV's on glass substrate", Electron. Lett., vol. 35, no. 17, pp.  1493-1494, Aug.  1999.