EC734 MWE PPT Unit 2 Module 1

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WELCOME HOUSEKEEPING INFO Unit 2 Module 1

Course Teacher: Dr S Suganthi


suganthi.s@christuniversity.in WA: +91-8861256865

EC734 Microwave Engineering, 08, 09 June 2020

MISSION VISION CORE VALUES


CHRIST is a nurturing ground for an individual’s Excellence and Service Faith in God | Moral Uprightness
holistic development to make effective contribution to Love of Fellow Beings
the society in a dynamic environment Social Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
EC734 Microwave Engineering,
08, 09 June 2020, Unit 2 Module 1

This course aims at imparting knowledge about the passive and active
microwave components and devices used in microwave engineering
Unit 2, Solid state microwave devices
Topics covered
• Module 1: Introduction to microwave solid state devices- Diodes, BJTs and
FETs, materials used, applications in low power and miniaturized systems
• Module2: BJT, configurations, Principle of operation, I-V characteristics, voltage-
frequency, current-frequency and power-frequency limitations
• Module 3: JFET – Physical Structure, Principles of Operation, Pinch-off voltage
• Module 4: MESFET – Physical Structure, Principles of Operation, Pinch-off voltage
• Module 5: Introduction, Gunn-effect diodes – GaAs Diodes,
• Module 6: RWH Theory, Modes of Operation, LSA Diodes
• Module 7: ATTD Introduction, READ Diode, IMPATT Diode, TRAPATT Diode, BARITT
Diode
• Module 8: Introduction to parametric amplifiers - varactor diode, characteristics,
advantages and applications

MISSION VISION CORE VALUES


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holistic development to make effective contribution to Love of Fellow Beings
the society in a dynamic environment Social Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
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What is special about solid state devices in microwave?


● The active RF & Microwave devices are made of solid-state devices
(SSD). That means, what are they?
● These active devices include diodes, transistors, electron tubes(will
study in detail in unit 3).
● The SSDs are used for detection(demodulation), mixing, amplification,
phase shifters, frequency multiplication, switching producing RF & MW
signals (called oscillators – in RF & microwave region we call them as
sources).
● Historically, the development of RF & MW active devices has been
long and slow process.

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Evolution of SSD & IC technology for RF & MW applications


• First detector diode- cat whisker-crystal detector (19th century)
• Vacuum tubes(1920s, 1930s)
• Semiconductors for high frequency applications
 Invention & use of semiconductorstransistors & diodes (1960s)
 Advancements with new semiconductor materials(late 1960s)
 Many new types of diodes & transistors such as GaAs FET
• Integrated circuits(ICs) (1959)
 Robert Noyce invented the first monolithic integrated circuit chip at
Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959. It was made from silicon, and was
fabricated

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Semiconductor Microwave Devices


• Microwave source is essential for
any microwave system.
• Microwave tubes offer very high
–power to very-high frequencies,
but at the cost of this:
 Large Space requirements.
 Higher DC power requirement
 Filament heater requirements
 Higher Cost, etc.
• Solid state devices (i.e
semiconductor devices) as
source , which meet the low-
power requirements in
microwave regions.

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Why Semiconductors instead of other materials?

× √ ×

• In semiconductors, free electrons can be liberated from valance band so as to reach the
conduction band using external forces.
• Normally a very few number of free elections are existing in the conduction band.
• This won’t be sufficient for the conduction of current for an application.
• Hence these free electrons can be created either by increasing the temperature of the
material or by applying external electric field so as to liberate electrons.
• For making active electronic devices such as transistors, these semiconductors can be as
main materials.
• They should be doped properly by impurities so that the desired performance can be
achieved.
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Which semiconductor materials are used
for making diodes & transistors?

• Normally semiconductors Silicon and Germanium are used (IV group materials in the
periodic table)
• Advancements in new materials research resulted in compound semiconductors such as
GaAs, InP, InGaN (picked from III & V group in the periodic table)
• In microwave applications Si, GaAs, GaN, InP are the most preferred materials rather than
other semiconductors because of their superior performance.
• They provide high electron bulk mobility and high electron drift velocity which are required in
microwave circuit operations.
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Electrical Properties of semiconductor materials

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Categorization of Microwave Solid State Devices

Microwave Transistor Microwave BJT, HBT, Tunnel diode


(used as amplifier & oscillator)
Field Effect transistor JFET, MESFET, HEMT, MOSFET,
NMOS, PMOS, CMOS, Memories, CCD
Transferred electron Gunn diode, LSA diodes, InP Diode, CdTe
devices diode(for infra-red & optical ranges)
Avalanche transit time Read diode, IMPATT diode, TRAPATT
devices Diode, BARITT diode

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ACTIVE DEVICES- Diodes
• Diodes: A diode is a two-terminal semiconductor device having a non-linear V-I
relationship.
• Property: This non-linearity is exploited for the useful functions such as signal
detection, demodulation, switching, frequency multiplication and oscillation
• Packaging: RF & MW diodes can be packaged as axial or beam lead components or as
a surface mountable chips, or monolithically integrated with other components on a
single semiconductor substrate
• Examples:
• Schottky diodes – used mainly in demodulation/ rectification
 Made of semiconductor-metal junction(instead of PN junction)
 This metal-semiconductor combination results in much lower junction capacitance allowing
operations at higher frequencies.
 Materials used: n-type GaAs, n-type Si
 Biasing: This diode can be used with a small DC forward current, but can be used without
biasing

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• PIN diodes –used as switches, phase shifters
 Made of P and n-type semiconductors with an Intrinsic(lightly doped) layer in
between, that’s why called PIN diode.
 Switching speed of PIN diode: 1 𝑡𝑜 10 𝜇𝑠 (low impedance state – ON, and high
impedance state –OFF)
• Gunn diode – used as oscillator and amplifier
 Made from a bulk GaAs and InP semiconductor
 Has negative resistance characteristics exploited for generating RF & MW signals
• Varactor diode – variable capacitor(also called step-recovery diode)
 Like in PIN diode, the effect of switching function can be enhanced if the size and
doping profile of the intrinsic layer is tailored to provide desired junction capacitance
versus junction voltage.
 used as variable capacitor & electronic frequency tuner in local oscillator to track the
incoming frequency in receivers/ frequency multiplier / amplifier

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• IMPATT(impact avalanche transit time) diode – used in frequency multiplication and
amplification
 Similar to PIN diode but operated at higher voltage (typically, 70-100 V), produces reverse
biased avalanche breakdown current.
 This also exhibits negative resistance region.
 This property is exploited to convert directly from DC to RF signal.
• BARITT (Barrier injection transit time) diode
 Has structure similar to junction transistor but without base contact lead.
 BARITT diode comprises of two diodes, which are placed back to back.
• Tunnel diode –PN junction diode used as oscillators and amplifiers
 Its doping profile allows electron tunneling through narrow energy band gap resulting in negative
resistance
• TRAPATT (TRApped plasma avalanche trigger transit) diode
 comprises of two layers of heavily doped P+ and N+ region and a N doped third layer is used to
separate the heavily doped layers and is placed in the drift region.

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Comparison CHRIST
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Properties IMPATT Diode TRAPATT Diode BARITT Diode
Trapped Plasma Avalanche Triggered
Full name Impact Ionisation Avalanche Transit Time Barrier Injection Transit Time
Transit
Developed by RL Johnston in the year 1965 HJ Prager in the year 1967 D J Coleman in the year 1971
Operating
4GHz to 200GHz 1 to 3GHz 4GHz to 8GHz
Frequency range
Principle of
Avalanche multiplication Plasma avalanche Thermionic emission
operation
Output power 1Watt CW and > 400Watt pulsed 250 Watt at 3GHz , 550Watt at 1GHz Just few milliwatts
3% CW and 60% pulsed below 1GHz, more efficient
and more powerful than the Gunn diode type 5% (low frequency) , 20%(high
Efficiency 35% at 3GHz and 60% pulsed at 1GHz
Impatt diode Noise Figure: 30dB (worse than a Gunn frequency)
diode)
Very high NF of the order of about
Noise Figure 30dB (worse than Gunn diode) Low NF about 15dB
60dB
This microwave diode has high power capability Less noisy than impatt diodes
Higher efficiency than Impatt
Advantages compare to other diodes. NF of 15dB at C band using
Very low power dissipation
Output is reliable compared to other diodes Baritt amplifier
·Not suitable for CW operation due to
High noise figure high power densities Narrow bandwidth
Disadvantages High operating current High NF of about 60dB Limited few mWatts of power
High spurious AM/FM noise ·Upper frequency is limited to below output
millimeter band
Voltage controlled Impatt oscillators
Used in microwave beacons Mixer
Low power radar system
Applications Instrument landing systems Oscillator
Injection locked amplifiers
LO in radar Smal
Cavity stabilized impatt diode oscillators

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Negative resistance region at microwave frequencies


• It shows negative differential
resistance after the peak voltage.
• Negative resistances are related to
the negative slopes of the current-
voltage characteristics.
• Most microwave energy is produced
with negative differential resistance
devices.
• This is the DC I-V characteristics of
a Gunn diode when forward biased.
• IMPATT & Tunnel diodes have
similar I-V characteristics.
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Commercial microwave diodes & symbols

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ACTIVE DEVICES- Microwave Transistors
• Transistors are three terminal devices.
They are categorized as below:
• BJT (Silicon bipolar-junction transistor),
they use Silicon semiconductor material
• HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistors),
uses GaAs. InP, SiGe.
• Both NPN and PNP are possible, but
NPN is very well used because of
higher electron mobility at higher
frequencies
• FET(field-effect transistor), uses GaAs,
both n-channel & -channel re possible,
Types: MESFET, MOSFET, HEMT

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MICs (Monolithic Microwave Integrated circuits)


• They are invented to work at lower frequency region of microwaves.
• They combine transmission lines, active devices, and other components
on a semiconductor substrate.
• First MMIC was developed during late 1960s.
• Sophisticated circuits and subsystems, such as multistage FET
amplifiers, Tx-Rx radar modules are being fabricated as MMICs now…
• What is the trend?
• The trend is towards MMIC providing the following:
 higher performance
 lower power requirements
 greater complexity
 and lower cost
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MICs-types:
● Hybrid MICs – they are flexible and cost effective for circuit
implementation, first developed in 1960s.
 Thick-film hybrid MICs-have one layer of metallization for conductors and
transmission lines; all discrete components and active devices are bonded to the
substrate
 Thin-film hybrid MICs – some simpler components are deposited on the substrate
and the rest components are bonded through soldering
● MMIC (Monolithic microwave integrated circuits) – are a more recent
development.
 Active & passive circuit elements are grown on the substrate.
 The substrate is a semiconductor material, and several layers of metal, dielectric,
and resistive films are used.

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MIC circuit image

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Layout of MMIC

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Comparison in view of applications and advantages CHRIST
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Devices Applications Advantages


Transistors L-band transmitters for telemetry systems Low cost , low power supply, reliable, high
and phased array radar systems CW power output ,light weight
L and S- band transmitters for
communication systems
TED C -, X- and Ku- band ECM amplifiers for low power supply(12 V), Low cost, high CW
wide band systems power output ,light weight, reliable, low
X- and Ku- band transmitters for radar noise, high gain
systems, such as traffic control
IMPATT Transmitters for millimeter-wave Low Power Supply, Low cost, reliable, high
communication systems CW power output, light weight

TRAPATT S-band pulsed transmitters for phased High peak and average power, reliable, low
array radar systems power supply, low cost

BARITT Local Oscillators in communications and Low cost, Low power Supply, reliable, Low
radar receivers noise

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To summarize.. Reference book used: Microwave
devices and circuits by Samuel Liao

Topics covered:
Module 1: Introduction to microwave
solid state devices- Diodes, BJTs and
FETs, MICs, MMICs, materials
used, applications in low power and
miniaturized systems

Next class.. In Module 2


BJT – Configurations, Principles of
Operation, I-V Characteristics of a transistor,
Power Frequency Limitations

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