Analysis of potential high power failure in millimetric Schottkybarrier diodes

摘要

An experimental and theoretical study has been made of thencharacteristics, performance, and limitations of a Schottky barrierndiode operating as a power sampler at 35 GHz. The Schottky diode is usednto rectify incident power at 35 GHz, the resulting DC current is used tonpre-bias a waveguide mounted PIN diode into a low impedance, highnattenuation state. The diode junction is frequently subjected toncomparatively high levels of incident RF power and for a variety ofnreasons it is important to know how the diode responds in thisnenvironment. For instance, the designer needs to know what is thenmaximum, worst case, safe power level that the device can withstand.nEqually, it is important to know whether the diode, together with itsnassociated microwave circuitry, will respond quickly enough at the onsetnof incident power, which factors will affect conversion efficiency, andnlikely performance at higher frequencies, notably 60 GHz and 94nGHz