Avalanche Transit Time Devices

So far for the two terminal negative-

resistance devices , we have;
Tunnel diodes
TEDs
Now Avalanche transit time dev.
 Read diode
• Physical description - the basic operating
principle of IMPATT diodes:

• Mode of original Read diode with a doping

profile and a dc electric field distribution that
exists when a large reverse bias is applied
across the diode is shown below.
• It is n+ -p-i-p structure
• Consists essentially of two regions:
• 1. High field region or Avalanche region – thin
p region where avalanche multiplication
occurs.
• 2. intrinsic region or the drift region – the i or
v region through which the generated holes
must drift in moving to the p+ region.
• The space b/t 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
• Read diode oscillator consists of an n+ -p-i-p+
diode biased in reverse and mounted in a
microwave cavity.
• The impedance of the cavity is mainly inductive
and matched to mainly capacitive impedance of
the diode to form a resonant circuit.
• The device can produce a negative ac resistance
that , in turn, delivers power from the dc bias to
the oscillation
 Avalanche multiplication
• When reverse-biased voltage is well above the
breakdown voltage,
• Space charge always extends from the n+ -p
junction through the p and i regions to the i-p+
junction.
• The +ve charge gives a rising field in moving
from left to right.
• Max field, which occurs at the n+ -p junction, is
about several hundred KV per centimeter.
• Carrier holes moving in the field near the n+-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 exp 7 cm/s for silicon.
• Field throughout the space charge region is above about 5
kV/cm for Si.
• Transit time of a hole across the drift i-region L is given by
• τ = L / vd
• Avalanche multiplication factor
• M = 1/(1 – (V/Vb) exp n)
• V – applied voltage
• Vb – avalanche breakdown voltage
• n – 3-6 for silicon is a numerical factor depending on the
doping of n+ -p (or p+-n)
Carrier current Io (t) and External Current Ie (t)

• As said in earlier slide, Read diode is mounted

in a microwave resonant circuit.
• An ac voltage can be maintained at a given
freq. in the circuit, and the total field across
the diode is the sum of the dc and ac fields.
• Total field (if greater than the breakdown
voltage) causes breakdown at the n+ -p
junction during the positive half cycle
• 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 –ve 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 only at the junction.

• It is a pulse of very short duration (fig below)

• The carrier current Io(t) reaches it s max in the

middle of the ac voltage cycle or one-quarter
of a cycle later that 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 IE(t) in the external
circuit.
• Since the drift velocity of the holes in the space-
charge region is constant, the induced current
Ie(t) in the external circuit is
• Ie(t) = Q/ τ = vd Q / L
• 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 I e(t) in
the external circuit is equal to the average current
in the space-charge region.

• Ie(t) lags Io(t)by 90degrees

• Io(t) lags the applied ac voltage by 90 degrees

• Therefore le(t) lags applied ac voltage by 180
degrees
• Since applied ac voltage and the external
circuit Ie(t) are out of phase by 180 degrees
negative conductance occurs and read diode
can be used for microwave oscillation and
amplification
• Eg . Taking vd = 10 exp 7 cm/s for Si, the
optimum freq. for a Read diode with an i-
region length of 2.5 um is 20 GHz.
 IMPATT Diodes
• 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 Io(t) and the ac voltage to be out of
phase by 90 degrees

• 2. the transit-time effect, which further delays the

external current Ie(t) relative to the ac voltage by
degrees
• IMPATT diodes are at present the most powerful
CW solid state microwave power sources

• The diodes have been fabricated from

germanium, silicon and gallium arsenide

• IMPATT diodes provide potentially reliable,

compact, inexpensive and moderately efficient
microwave power sources
 TRAPATT diodes
• TRAPATT – trapped plasma avalanche triggered
transit mode
• High-efficiency microwave generator capable of
operating from several hundred megahertz to
several gigahertz
• The basic operation of the oscillator is a
semiconductor p-n junction diode reverse-biased
to current densities well in excess of those
encountered in normal avalanche operation.
• High-peak-power diodes are typically silicon n+
-p-p+ (p+ -n-n+) structures with the n-type
depletion region width varying from 2.5 to 12.5
um.
• The device’s p+ region is kept as thin as possible
at 2.5 to 7.5 um
• The TRAPATT diode’s diameter ranges from as
small as 50 um for CW operation to 750 um at
lower freq for high-peak-power devices
• A typical voltage waveform for the TRAPATT
mode of an avalanche p+ -n-n+ diode
operating with an assumed squarewave
current drive is shown in the next slide.
• At point A the electric field is uniform
throughout the sample and its magnitude is
large but less than the value required for
avalanche breakdown
• At the instant of time at pt A, the diode
current is turned on.
• Since the only charge carriers present are
those caused by the thermal generation,
• The diode initially charges up like a linear
capacitor, driving the magnitude of the
electric field above the breakdown voltage.
• When a sufficient number of carriers is generated
the particle current exceeds the external current
and the electric field is depressed throughout the
depletion region causing the voltage to decrease.
• This portion of the cycle is shown by the curve from
pt B to pt C.
• During this time interval the electric field is
sufficiently large for the avalanche to continue, and
a dense plasma of electrons and holes is created.
• As some of the electrons and holes drift out of
the ends of the depletion layer, the field is
further depressed and “traps” the remaining
plasma.
• The voltage decreases to pt D.
• A long time is required to remove the plasmas
because the total plasma charge is large
compared to the charge per unit time in the
external time.
• At pt E the plasma is removed, but a residual
charge of electrons remains in one end of the
depletion layer and a residual charge of holes
in the other end.
• As the residual charge is removed, the voltage
increases from pt E to pt F.
• At pt F all the charge that was generated
internally has been removed.
• This charge must be greater than or equal to
that supplied by the external current; otherwise
the voltage will exceed that at pt A.
• From pt F to pt G the diode charges up again
like a fixed capacitor.
• At pt G the diode current goes to zero for half a
period and the voltage remains constant at VA
until the current comes back on and the cycle
repeats
• Thus the avalanche zone (or avalanche shock
front) will quickly sweep across most of the
diode , leaving the diode filled by a highly
conducting plasma of holes and electrons
 BARITT diodes
• Barrier injected transit-time diodes –BARITT
• They have long drift regions similar to IMPATT
• The carriers traversing the drift regions of
BARITT diodes, however are generated by
minority carrier injection from forward-biased
junctions instead of being extracted from the
plasma of an avalanche region.
• Several different structures have been operated
as BARITT diodes, including p-n-p, p-n-v-p, p-n-
metal and metal-n-metal.
• For a p-n-v-p BARITT diode, the forward-biased
p-n junction emits holes into the v region.
• These holes drift with saturation velocity
through the v region and are collected at the p
contact
• The diode exhibits a –ve resistance for transit
angles between pi and 2pi. The optimum
transit angle is approximately 1.6pi.

• Less noisy than IMPATT diodes.

• Major disadvantage of BARITT diodes are
relatively narrow bandwidth and power
outputs limited to a few milliwatts
 Principle of operation
• A crystal n-type Si wafer with 11 ohm cm
resistivity and 4 X 10 exp 14 per cubic cm
doping is made of a 10 um thin slice.
• Then the n-type Si wafer is sandwiched b/t
two PtSi Schottky barrier contacts of about 0.1
um thickness.
• A schematic diagram of a meta-n-metal
structure is shown in the next slide
• The energy band diagram at thermal
equilibrium (b) where фn1 and фn2 are
barrier heights for the metal-semiconductor
contacts respectively.
• For the PtSi-Si-Si structure mentioned
previously, фn1 = фn2 = 0.85 Ev
• The hole barrier height фp2 for the forward-
biased contact is about 0.15 eV
• The mechanisms responsible for the microwave
oscillations are derived from:
• 1. The rapid increase of the carrier injection
process caused by the decreasing potential
barrier of the forward-biased metal-
semiconductor contact.
• 2. An apparent 3/2(pi) transit angle of the
injected carrier that traverses the
semiconductor depletion region
• The rapid increase in terminal current with
applied voltage (above 30 V) as shown below
is caused by thermionic hole injection into the
semiconductor as
• the depletion layer of the reverse-biased
contact reaches through the entire device
thickness