DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF 0.5 MICRON GAAS SCHOTTKY-BARRIER DIODES FOR LOW-NOISE TERAHERTZ RECEIVER APPLICATIONS

Recent technological advances have made possible the development of heterodyne receivers with high sensitivity and high spectral resolution for frequencies in the range 1,000-3,000 GHz (1-3 THz). These receivers rely on GaAs Schottky barrier mixer diodes to translate the high-frequency signal to a lower frequency where amplification and signal processing are possible. At these frequencies, the diode quality is a major limitation to the performance of the receiver. The design, fabrication and DC evaluation of a diode for this frequency range is presented. A figure-of-merit cut-off frequency of over 10 THz is achieved with a record low zero biased capacitance of 0.5 fF. Results from RF tests are also given. © 1990 Plenum Publishing Corporation.