Effects of tunnelling current on millimetre-wave IMPATT devices

In this paper, the influence of tunnelling on the RF performance of millimetre-wave (mm-wave) impact ionisation avalanche transit time (IMPATT) diodes operating in mixed tunnelling and avalanche transit time mode is studied by taking into account the parasitic series resistance of the device. The results show that the parasitic resistance of mm-wave IMPATTs increases and consequently the power delivered by the device decreases due to the consequence of band-to-band tunnelling. The critical background doping concentration and operating frequency are found to be 5.0 × 1023 m−3 and 260 GHz, respectively, above which the influence of tunnelling on the RF performance of the device becomes predominant.

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