Avalanche Transit-Time Devices

Avalanche transit-time diode oscillators rely on the effect of voltage breakdown across a
reverse-biased p-n junction to produce a supply of holes and electrons. The avalanche diode
oscillator uses carrier impact ionization and drift in the high-field region of a semiconductor
junction to produce a negative resistance at microwave frequencies. The device was originally
proposed in a theoretical paper by Read in which he analyzed the negative-resistance properties
of an idealized n+-p-i-p+ diode. Two distinct modes of avalanche oscillator have been observed.
One is the IMPATT mode, which stands for impact ionization avalanche transit-time operation.
In this mode the typical de-to-RF conversion efficiency is 5 to 10%, and frequencies are as
high as 100 GHz with silicon diodes. The other mode is the TRAPATT mode, which represents
trapped plasma avalanche triggered transit operation. Its typical conversion efficiency is from
20 to 60%.

READ DIODE
Physical Description:
The basic operating principle of IMPATT diodes can be most easily understood by reference
to the first proposed avalanche diode, the Read diode. The theory of this device was presented
by Read in 1958, but the first experimental Read diode was reported by Lee et al. in 1965. A
mode of the original Read diode with a doping profile and a de electric field distribution that
exists when a large reverse bias is applied across the diode is shown in Fig.

Fig(1) : Read diode

The Read diode is an n+ -p-i-p+ structure, where the superscript plus sign denotes very high
doping and the i or v refers to intrinsic material. The device consists essentially of two regions.
One is the thin p region at which avalanche multiplication occurs. This region is also called the
high-field region or the avalanche region. The other is the i or v region through which the
generated holes must drift in moving to the p+ contact. This region is also called the intrinsic
region or the drift region. The p region is very thin. The space between the n+ -p junction and
the i-p+ junction is called the space-charge region. Similar devices can be built in the p+ -n-i-
n+ structure, in which electrons generated from avalanche multiplication drift through the i
region.

Avalanche Multiplication:
When the reverse-biased voltage is well above the punchthrough or breakdown voltage, the
space-charge region always extends from the n+ -p junction through the p and i regions to the
i-p+ junction. The fixed charges in the various regions are shown in Fig. 8-1-l(b). A positive
charge gives a rising field in moving from left to right. The maximum field, which occurs at
the n+ -p junction, is about several hundred kilovolts per centimeter. Carriers (holes) moving
in the high field near then+ -p junction acquire energy to knock valence electrons into the
conduction band, thus producing hole-electron pairs. The rate of pair production, or avalanche
multiplication, is a sensitive nonlinear function of the field. By proper doping, the field can be
given a relatively sharp peak so that avalanche multiplication is confined to a very narrow
region at the n+ -p junction. The electrons move into the n+ region and the holes drift through
the space-charge region to the p+ region with a constant velocity Vd of about 10^7 cm/s for
silicon. The field throughout the space-charge region is above about 5 kV/cm. The transit time
of a hole across the drift i-region L is given by

and the avalanche multiplication factor is

where V = applied voltage

Vb = avalanche breakdown voltage
n = 3-6 for silicon is a numerical factor depending on the doping of p+ -n or n+ -p junction
The breakdown voltage for a silicon p+ -n junction can be expressed as

where 𝑝𝑛 = resistivity
µ𝑛 = electron mobility
𝐸𝑆 = semiconductor permittivity
𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 = maximum breakdown of the electric field

Carrier Current lo(t) and External Current le (t):

The Read diode is mounted in a microwave resonant circuit. An ac voltage can be maintained
at a given frequency in the circuit, and the total field across the diode is the sum of the de and
ac fields. This total field causes breakdown at the n+ -p junction during the positive half of the
ac voltage cycle if the field is above the breakdown voltage, and the carrier current (or the hole
current in this case) Io(t) generated at the n+ -p junction by the avalanche multiplication grows
exponentially with time while the field is above the critical value. During the negative half
cycle, when the field is below the breakdown voltage, the carrier current Io(t) decays
exponentially to a small steady-state value. The carrier current Io(t) is the current at the junction
only and is in the form of a pulse of very short duration as shown in Fig.2 (d). Therefore the
carrier current Io(t) reaches its maximum in the middle of the ac voltage cycle, or one-quarter
of a cycle later than the voltage. Under the influence of the electric field the generated holes
are injected into the space-charge region toward the negative terminal. As the injected holes
traverse the drift space, they induce a current le(t) in the external circuit as shown in Fig 2(d)
 Fig (2) Field, voltage, and currents in Read diode.
When the holes generated at the n+ -p junction drift through the space-charge region, they cause a reduction of
the field in accordance with Poisson's equation:

where p is the volume charge density and

𝐸𝑆 is the semiconductor permittivity.
Since the drift velocity of the holes in the space-charge region is constant, the induced current I.(t) in the external
circuit is simply equal to

where Q = total charge of the moving holes

𝑉𝑑 = hole drift velocity
L = length of the drift i region

It can be seen that the induced current Ie(t) in the external circuit is equal to the average current
in the space-charge region. When the pulse of hole current Io(t) is suddenly generated at the n+
-p junction, a constant current Ie(t) starts flowing in the external circuit and continues to flow
during the time T in which the holes are moving across the space-charge region. Thus, on the
average, the external current Ie(t) because of the moving holes is delayed by T /2 or 90° relative
to the pulsed carrier current Io(t) generated at the n+ -p junction. Since the carrier Io(t) is delayed
by one-quarter of a cycle or 90° relative to the ac voltage, the external current I e(t) is then
delayed by 180° relative to the voltage as shown in Fig. 2(d). Therefore the cavity should be
tuned to give a resonant frequency as

Then

Since the applied ac voltage and the external current I e(t) are out of phase by 180°, negative
conductance occurs and the Read diode can be used for microwave oscillation and
amplification. For example, taking Vd= 10^7 cm/s for silicon, the optimum operating
frequency for a Read diode with an i-region length of 2.5 μm is 20 GHz.

Output Power and Quality Factor Q

The external current Ie(t) approaches a square wave, being very small during the positive half
cycle of the ac voltage and almost constant during the negative half cycle. Since the direct
current Id supplied by the de bias is the average external current or conductive current, it follows
that the amplitude of variation of Ie(t) is approximately equal to Id. If Va is the amplitude of the
ac voltage, the ac power delivered is found to be

The quality factor Q of a circuit is defined as

Since the Read diode supplies ac energy, it has a negative Q in contrast to the positive Q of the
cavity. At the stable operating point, the negative Q of the diode is equal to the positive Q of
the cavity circuit. If the amplitude of the ac voltage increases, the stored energy, or energy of
oscillation, increases faster than the energy delivered per cycle. This is the condition required
in order for stable oscillation to be possible.

IMPATT DIODES
Physical Structures
A theoretical Read diode made of an n+ -p-i-p+ or p+ -n-i-n+ structure has been analyzed.
Its basic physical mechanism is the interaction of the impact ionization avalanche and the
transit time of charge carriers. Hence the Read-type diodes are called IMPATT diodes. These
diodes exhibit a differential negative resistance by two effects:
1. The impact ionization avalanche effect, which causes the carrier current fo(t)
and the ac voltage to be out of phase by 90°
2. The transit-time effect, which further delays the external current I.(t) relative
to the ac voltage by 90°
negative resistance of the IMPATT diode can be obtained from a junction diode with any doping profile.
Many IMPATT diodes consist of a high doping avalanching region followed by a drift region where the field
is low enough that the carriers can traverse through it without avalanching. The Read diode is the basic type
in the IMPATT diode family. The others are the one-sided abrupt p-n junction, the linearly graded p-n
junction (or double-drift region), and the p-i-n diode, all of which are shown in Fig. (3). The principle of
operation of these devices, however, is essentially similar to the mechanism described for the Read diode.
 Fig(3): Three typical silicon IMPATT diodes.
Small-signal analysis of a Read diode results in the following expression for the real part of the diode
terminal impedance

where Rs = passive resistance of the inactive region

Vd = carrier drift velocity
L = length of the drift space-charge region
A = diode cross section
Es = semiconductor dielectric permittivity
Moreover, Ɵ is the transit angle, given by

and w, is the avalanche resonant frequency, defined by

In Eq. (8-2-3) the quantity a' is the derivative of the ionization coefficient with respect to the electric field. This
coefficient, the number of ionizations per centimetre produced by a single carrier, is a sharply increasing function
of the electric field. The variation of the negative resistance with the transit angle when W > wr W is plotted in
Fig. 8-2-2. The peak value of the negative resistance occurs near Ɵ =Π. For transit angles larger than ' Π and
approaching 3 Π /2, the negative resistance of the diode decreases rapidly. For practical purposes, the Read-type
IMPATT diodes work well only in a frequency range around the Π transit angle. That is,
 Fig(4) Negative resistance versus transit angle.
Power Output and Efficiency:
At a given frequency the maximum output power of a single diode is limited by semiconductor
materials and the attainable impedance levels in microwave circuitry. For a uniform avalanche,
the maximum voltage that can be applied across the diode is given by

where Lis the depletion length and Em is the maximum electric field. This maximum applied voltage is limited by
the breakdown voltage. Furthermore, the maximum current that can be carried by the diode is also limited by the
avalanche breakdown process, for the current in the space-charge region causes an increase in the electric field.
The maximum current is given by

Therefore the upper limit of the power input is given by

The capacitance across the space-charge region is defined as

application of 2 Π fT = 1 yield

The efficiency of the IMPATT diodes is given by