Avalanche transit time devices in Microwave Engineering.

1. Avalanche Transit Time Devices
By
Sk. Hedayath Basha
Assistant Professor, ECE Dept.
R.M.K. College of Engineering & Technology, Chennai.
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2. Avalanche Transit Time Devices
(ATTD’s)
1. IMPATT (Impact Ionization Avalanche Transit
Time)Diode
2. TRAPATT (Trapped Plasma Avalanche Triggered
Transit)
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3. Basics of ATTD’s
• 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.
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4. • 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 dc-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%.
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5. READ DIODE – Physical Description
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6. Avalanche Multiplication
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8. Carrier Current lo(t) and External Current le(t)
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9. where Q = total charge of the moving holes
vd = hole drift velocity
L = length of the drift i region
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10. Output Power and Quality Factor Q
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11. IMPATT Diodes
• 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 Io(t) and the ac voltage to be out of phase by
90°
2. The transit-time effect, which further delays the external
current Ie(t) relative to the ac voltage by 90°
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12. The Read diode is the basic type in the
IMPATT diode family
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13. Three Typical Types of IMPATT Diodes
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15. Power Output and Efficiency
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17. TRAPATT Diodes
• The abbreviation TRAPATT stands for trapped
plasma avalanche triggered transit mode.
• It is a 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.
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18. TRAPATT Physical Structure
• High-peak-power diodes are typically silicon n+ -p-p+ (or p+
-n-n+) structures with then-type depletion region width
varying from 2.5 to 12.5 μ,m.
• The doping of the depletion region is generally such that
the diodes are well "punched through" at breakdown; that
is, the dc electric field in the depletion region just prior to
breakdown is well above the saturated drift-velocity level.
• The device's p+ region is kept as thin as possible at 2.5 to
7.5 μ,m. The TRAPATT diode's diameter ranges from as
small as 50 μ,m for CW operation to 750 μ,m at lower
frequency for highpeak-power devices.
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21. Tunnel Diode
• Tunnel diodes are useful in many circuit
applications in microwave amplification,
microwave oscillation, and binary memory
because of their low cost, light weight, high
speed, low-power operation, low noise, and
high peak-current to valley-current ratio.
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22. Energy band gap Diagram
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24. • EF is the Fermi level representing the energy state
with 50% probability of being filled if no forbidden
band exists.
• V0 is the potential barrier of the junction
• Eg is the energy required to break a covalent bond,
which is 0.72 eV for germanium and I.I 0 eV for silicon
• Ee is the lowest energy in the conduction band
• Eu is the maximum energy in the valence band
• V is the applied forward bias
• F.B. Stands for the forbidden band
• B.H. represents the barrier height
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26. I-V Characteristics of Tunnel Diode
with load line
Here the abc load line intersects the characteristic curve in three points.
Points a and c are stable points
and point b is unstable.
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27. • The circuit with a load line crossing point ‘b’ in
the negative-resistance region is called
astable.
• Another load line crossing point ‘a’ in the
positive-resistance region indicates a
monostable circuit.
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31. Series loading. In the series circuit shown in Fig. 5-3-5(b) the
power gain A is given by
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