Topic for the class: Avalanche Transit Time Devices

Unit II: Microwave Engineering

Date & Time :29-09-2020

Mr. Durga Prasad Tumula

Assistant Professor
Department of EECE
GITAM Institute of Technology (GIT)
Visakhapatnam – 530045
Email: [email protected]

29th july 2020 Dept of EECE EEC403 MWE

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 Syallabus
• Avalanche Transit Time Devices: Introduction,
read diode, IMPATT Diodes: Physical
structures, negative resistance, power output
and efficiency, TRAPATT diodes: Physical
structures, principles of operation, power
output and efficiency, parametric devices:
Physical structure, nonlinear reactance and
Manley-rowe power relations, parametric
amplifiers, applications.
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 Module II:Avalanche Transit Time
Devices
• Introduction
• Read diode
• IMPATT Diodes
• TRAPATT diodes
• Parametric devices
• Parametric amplifiers
• Parametric amplifiers Applications

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 Introduction
• Negative Resistance Devices:
– The Tunnel Diode
– Transferred Electron Devices
– Avalanche Transit Time Devices
• There are no p-n junctions in TEDs.
• In TEDs the frequency is a function of the load and of the
natural frequency of the circuit.
• 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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5
6
 Principle of operation
• Negative resistance is achieved by
creating a delay (1800 Phase shift)
between the voltage and current.
• Delay is achieved by,
• Delay in generating the avalanche current
multiplication
• Delay due to transit time through the material
• Avalanche is generated by Carrier impact
ionization
• TT is due to the drift in the high field
domain
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 Features
• Presence of P-N junctions
• Diode is reverse biased
• High field (potential gradient) is applied of the order
400 KV/cm
• Avalanche transit time (ATT)
• Two modes of ATT
– IMPATT- Impact ionization ATT (Efficiency 5-10%)
– TRAPATT- Trapped plasma ATT (Efficiency 20-60%)

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Read diode

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 10
Read Diode
• Read diode is n+-p-i-p+ diode.
• Subscript plus denotes very high doping.
• i or v refers to intrinsic material.
• Avalanche multiplication at p region(Avalanche or high field region).
• Intrinsic region(Drift region) acts as the drift space where the generated
holes must drift toward p+ .
• Space between n+ p junction and 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 .
• The device operation delivers power from the dc bias to the oscillation.

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Avalanche Multiplication
• When the reverse biased voltage is above the
punchthrough or breakdown voltage, the space charge
region always extends from the is n+-p junction
through the p and i regions to the i-p+ junction.
• A positive charge gives a rising field in moving from
left to right.
• The maximum field , which occurs at n+-p junction, is
about several hundred kilovolts per centimeter.
• Carriers (holes) moving in the high 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 (Avalanche Multiplication)
is a sensitive non linear function of the field.

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•• By
  proper doping, the filed 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 with a constant velocity
of about cm/s for silicon.
• The field throughout the space charge region is about 5
KV/cm.
• The transit time of a hole across the drift i- region L is given
by

• The avalanche multiplication factor is

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• The breakdown voltage for a silicon p+-n
junction can be expressed as

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Breakdown voltage versus impurity doping 15
• Carrier current and External current:

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Field, Voltage and Currents in Read Diode
•• The Reed 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 dc 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 generated at the n +-p junction by the
avalanche multiplication grows exponentially with time.
• During the negative half cycle, when the field is below the breakdown
voltage, the carrier current decays exponentially to a small steady state
value.
• The carrier current is the current at the junction only and is in the from
of a pulse of very short duration as shown in the figure (d) above.
• The carrier current reaches its maximum in the middle of the ac
voltage cycle, or one-quarter of a cycle later than the voltage.
• The generated holes are injected into the space charge region toward
the negative terminal.

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• The induced current in the external circuit is

• The induced current in the external circuit is equal to

the average current in the space charge region.
• When the pulse of hole current is suddenly generated
at the n+-p junction, a constant current start flowing in
the external circuit and continuous to flow during the
time τ in which the holes are moving across the space
charge region.
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•• The
  external current because of moving of holes is
delayed by τ/2 or relative to the pulsed carrier current
generated at the n+-p junction.
• Since the carrier current is delayed by one-quarter of a
cycle or relative to the ac voltage, the external current is
then delayed by relative to the voltage as shown in
figure(d) above.
• The cavity should be tuned to give a resonant frequency is

• The applied ac voltage and the external current are out of

phase by , negative conductance occurs and the Read
diode can be used for microwave oscillation and
amplification.
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Output power and Quality Factor Q:
• The external current approaches a square wave, being
very small during the positive half cycle of the ac
voltage and almost constant during the negative half
cycle.
• The direct current supplied by the dc bias is the
average external current , it follows that the amplitude
of variation of external current is approximately equal
to direct current.
• The power delivered is found to be

• The Quality factor of a circuit is defined as

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 IMPATT Diode
•• The
  physical mechanism is the interaction of impact ionization
avalanche and the transit time of charge carriers.

• So Read-type diodes are also called IMPATT diode

• Most simplest IMPATT diodes are the basic Read diodes

• These diodes exhibit a differential negative resistance by two

effects:

 The impact ionization avalanche effect, which causes the carrier

current and the ac voltage to be out of phase by .

 The transit Time effect , which further delays the external

current relative to the ac voltage by . 21
Fig: Three typical silicon IMPATT diodes

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Negative Resistance:
The expression for the real part of the diode terminal impedance is

θ is the transit angle

is the avalanche resonant frequency
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• The quantity α is the derivative of the ionization coefficient
with respect to the electric field.
• This coefficient, the number of ionizations per centimeter
produced by a single carrier, is a sharply increasing function of
the electric field. • The peak value of the
negative resistance
occurs near θ=π.
• For transit angles larger
than π and approaching
3π/2, the negative
resistance of the diode
decreases rapidly.
• Practically the Read-type
IMPATT diodes work
well only in a frequency
range around the π
transit angle.

Negative resistance versus transit angle

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•   Output and Efficiency:
Power
• 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
L where L is the depletion length
is the maximum electric field
• The maximum applied voltage is limited by the breakdown
voltage.
• 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
=
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•• The
  upper limit of the power input is given by
=A
• The capacitance across the space charge region is defined as

• By substituting the above equation into the power equation

and application of =1 yields

• The efficiency of the IMPATT diode is given by

=()
• For an ideal Read type IMPATT diode, the efficiency is about
1/π or more than 30%.
• For practical IMPATT diode, the efficiency is less than 30%.

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IMPATT Diodes:
• The most powerful CW solid-state microwave power
sources.

• Fabricated from Germanium, Silicon and Gallium

Arsenide materials.

• These provide potentially reliable, compact,

inexpensive, and moderately efficient microwave
power sources.

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Problem

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29
 TRAPATT Diode
•• Trapped
  Plasma Avalanche Triggered Transit
• Is a high frequency microwave generator capable of operating
from several hundred megahertz to several gigahertz.
• Presence of P-N junctions
• Diode is reverse biased
• High current densities than normal avalanche operation
• It is a or diode

• A high field avalanche zone propagates through the diode and fills
the depletion layer with a dense plasma of electrons and holes that
become trapped in the low field region behind the zone. 30
  • A: Electric field is uniform
throughout the sample and its
magnitude is large but less than
the value for avalanche
breakdown.
• The current density is expressed
by

• At the instant of time at point A,

the diode current is turned on.
• Since the only charge carriers
present are those caused by the
thermal generation, the diode is
initially charges up like a linear
capacitor, driving the magnitude
Voltage and current waveforms for TRAPATT Diode of the electric field above the
breakdown voltage.

• B to C: 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.
• 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.
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• 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 point D.
• A long time is required to remove the plasma because the total plasma
charge is large compared to the charge per unit in the external current.
• At point 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 point E to
point F.
• At point 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 point A.
• From point F to point G the diode charges up again like a fixed
capacitor.
• At point G the diode current goes to zero for half a period and the
voltage remains constant at until the current comes back on and the
cycle repeats. 32
•• The electric field can be expressed as
 
- +
Where is the doping concentration of the n region and is the distance.
• The value of t at which the electric field reaches at a given distance into the
depletion region is obtained by setting , yielding

• Differentiation of the equation above with respect to time t results in

≡
where is the avalanche-zone velocity
• The avalanche zone will quickly sweep across most of the diode, leaving the
diode filled by a highly conducting plasma of holes and electrons whose
space charge depresses the voltage to low values.
• Because of the dependence of the drift velocity on the field, the electrons
and holes will drift at velocities determined by the low field nobilities, and
the transit time of the carriers can become much longer than
=
where is the saturated carrier drift velocity
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Output Power and Efficiency:

TRAPATT mode exhibits higher noise figure than the IMPATT mode.

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35
 PARAMETRIC DEVICES
• Uses non linear reactance or time varying reactance

• Parametric term is derived from parametric

excitation, since the capacitance or inductance, which
is a reactive parameter, can be used to produce
capacitive or inductive excitation.

• Parametric excitation is subdivided into parametric

amplification and oscillation.

• Many of the essential properties of non linear energy

storage systems were described by Faraday and Lord
Rayleigh.
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• The first analysis of non linear capacitance was given
by Van der Ziel in 1948 which suggested that such a
device might be useful as a low noise amplifier,
since it was essentially a reactive device in which no
thermal noise is generated.

• In 1949 Landon analyzed and presented

experimental results of such circuits used as
amplifiers, converters, and oscillators.

• In the age of solid state electronics, microwave

electronics engineers thought of a solid state
microwave device to replace the noisy electron beam
amplifier.
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• In 1957 Suhl proposed a microwave solid state amplifier that used
ferrite.

• The first realization of a microwave parametric amplifier was made by

Weiss in 1957 after which the parametric amplifier was last discovered.

• At present the solid state varactor diode is the most widely used
parametric amplifier.

• Unlike microwave tubes, transistors and lasers, the parametric diode is of

reactive nature and thus generates a very small amount of Johnson
(thermal) noise.

• Parametric amplifier utilizes an ac rather than a dc power supply as

microwave tubes do. In this respect, the parametric amplifier is
analogous to the quantum amplifier laser or maser in which an ac power
supply is used.
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• A reactance is defined as a circuit element that stores and releases
electromagnetic energy as opposed to a resistance, which dissipates
energy.
• If the stored energy is predominantly in the electric field, the
reactance is said to be capacitive; inductive if in the magnetic field.
C = Q/V
• If the ratio is not linear, the capacitive reactance is said to be
nonlinear. In this case it is convenient to define a non linear
capacitance as the partial derivative of charge with respect to
voltage.
i.e C(v) = dQ/dv
• The analogous definition of non linear inductance is L(i) = dΦ/di.

• In the operation of parametric devices, the mixing effects occur

when voltages at two or more different frequencies are impressed
on a nonlinear reactance.
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MANLEY-ROWE POWER RELATIONS:

• Derived a set of general energy relations

regarding power flowing into and out of an
ideal nonlinear reactance.

• These relations are useful in predicting

whether power gain is possible in a parametric
amplifier.

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41
• One signal generator and one pump generator at their
•  respective frequencies and , together with associated series
resistances and bandpass filters, are applied to a nonlinear
capacitance C(t).

• These resonating circuits of filters are designed to reject power

at all frequencies other than their respective signal
frequencies.

• In the presence of two applied frequencies and , an infinite

number of resonant frequencies of m± are generated, where m
and n are any integers.

• Each of the resonating circuits is assumed to be ideal.

• The power loss by the nonlinear susceptance is negligible.

That is the power entering the nonlinear capacitor at the pump
frequency is equal to the power leaving the capacitor at the
other frequencies through the nonlinear interaction.
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•• Manley
  and Rowe established the power relations between
the input power at the frequencies and and the output
power at the other frequencies m± .
• It is assumed that the signal voltage is much smaller than
the pumping voltage , and the total voltage across the
nonlinear capacitance C(t) is given by

• The general expression of the charge Q deposited on the

capacitor is given by

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• For Q to be real,

• The total voltage v can be expressed as a function of the

charge Q.
• A similar Taylor series expression of v(Q) shows that

• V to be real,

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• The current flowing through C(t) is the total
derivative of Q w r t time. Hence,

Where

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•Since the capacitance C(t) is assumed to be pure
reactance, the average power at the frequencies
• is

Then conservation of power can be written

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Multiply the above equation  by a factor of
and rearrangement
of the resultant into two parts yield

Since
Then, becomes

and is independent of or . 47
• For any choice of the frequencies fp and fs, the
resonating circuit external to that of the nonlinear
capacitance C(t) can be so adjusted that the
currents may keep all the voltage amplitudes
unchanged.

• The charges are also unchanged, since they

are functions of the voltages .

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Consequently, the frequencies can be arbitrarily
adjusted in order to require

Eqn I can be expressed as

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Since , then

Similarly,

Where are replaced by

respectively.

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The above equations are  standard forms for the
Manley-Rowe power relations.
The term indicates the real power flowing into
or leaving the nonlinear capacitor at a frequency of
.The frequency represents the
fundamental frequency of the pumping voltage
oscillator and the frequency 𝑓  𝑠 signifies the
fundamental frequency of the signal voltage
generator.

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The sign convention for the power term will
follow that power flowing into the nonlinear
capacitance or the power coming from the two
voltage generators is positive, whereas the power
leaving from the nonlinear capacitance or the
power flowing into the load resistance is negative.

Consider for instance, the case where the power

output flow is allowed at a frequency of as
shown in fig.

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• All other harmonics are open circuited.
• The current at the three frquencies fp,fs,fp+fs are the only
ones existing. Under these conditions m and n vary from -1
to +1.
• Now the above equations are reduced to

• Where P0,1 ,P1,0,P1,1 are the power supplied by two

voltage generators at frequencies fs ,fp and fs+fp.
• P0,1and P1,0 considered to be positive and P1,1 considered
to be negative because the power flowing from reactance
into the resistive load.
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 Power gain
• The power gain which is defines as as aratio of power
delivered by the capacitor at frequncy of fs+fp to that
absorbed by the capacitor at a frequcy of fs is given by

• Here f0=fp+fs,here f0>fp>fs.

• The maximum gain is simply the ratio between output
frequency to the input frequency.
• This type of parametric device is called as sum-
frequency parametric amplifier or up-converter.
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• If the signal frequency is the sum of pump
frequency and output frequency, then the gain
will be

• Here fs=fp+fo,fo=fs-fp
• This type of parametric devices are called
parametric down converter.
• Its power gain is actually loss.

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56
• Parametric Amplifiers:

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•• In
  a Superheterodyne receiver a RF signal may be mixed with
a signal from the local oscillator in a non linear circuit (the
mixer) to generate the sum and difference frequencies.

• In a parametric amplifier the local oscillator is replaced by a

pumping generator such as reflex klystron and the non linear
element by a time varying capacitor such as a varactor diode
(or inductor) as shown in fig above.

• The signal frequency and pump frequency are mixed in the

non linear capacitance C.

• Accordingly, a voltage of the fundamental frequencies and as

well as the sum and the difference frequencies appears across
C.
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• If
  a resistive load is connected across the terminals of
the idler circuit, an output voltage can be generated
across the load at the output frequency

• The output circuit, which does not require the

external excitation, is called the idler circuit.

Where m and n are positive integers from zero to infinity.

• If > , the device is called a parametric up-converter.

• If < , the device is called a parametric down-converter.

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Parametric up-converter:
Properties:
• The output frequency is equal to the sum of the signal
frequency and the pump frequency.
• There is no power flow in the parametric device at frequencies
other than the signal, pump, and output frequencies.
Power Gain:

  is the series resistance of a p-n junction diode

γQ is the figure of merit of the non linear capacitor.

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Noise figure:

Bandwidth:

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62
•Parametric
  down-converter:
Gain:

Negative Resistance Parametric Amplifier:

The idler frequency is
Power Gain:

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Noise Figure:

Bandwidth:

Degenerate parametric amplifier:

Noise figure:

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Applications:
• LNA
• SPACE COMMUNICATION
• TROPO RECEIVER
• RADIO TELESCOPE

Advantages:
• Noise Figure
• Frequency Range

Disadvantages:
• Bandwidth
• Gain

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