Technology of manufacturing GaAs Gunn diodes for the short millimeter wavelength range

Abstract

An AuGe–TiB₂–Au contact to gallium arsenide has been developed, possessing the property of injecting hot electrons. The barrier height is 0.25 eV for GaAs with a carrier concentration of (0.3–1)·10¹⁶ cm^–3. A diode package with a capacitance of 0.04 pF has been designed. The fabricated Gunn diodes provide an output microwave power of about 40 mW at the fundamental oscillation frequency of 80 GHz, with an efficiency of 4%. The diodes operate stably in the temperature range from –50°C to +60°C and begin stable generation from –70°C.