Millimeter high burnout GaAs Schottky barrier diodes

Schottky barrier mixer and detector diodes designed for Ka-band and higher frequencies have an extremely small active area (10 µm2or less) and therefore are very susceptible to RF and accidental electrostatic burnout. Gallium arsenide Schottky barrier diodes exhibit lower noise figure, compared to silicon Schottky diodes and are generally preferred over X-band frequencies for mixer applications. The gallium arsenide Schottky barrier diodes fabricated with two different high temperature barrier metals were investigated for rf and electrostatic burnout. A recently developed titanium-tungsten (10% Ti, 90% W) - GaAs Schottky barrier diode was found to be the least sensitive to electrostatic discharge and exhibited rf burnout (τ = 1 µsec, 103pps) of 1.5 -2 watts at 36 GHz. This burnout level is three to four times better than most GaAs Schottky barrier diodes manufactured today. These Ti-W-GaAs diodes also exhibit nearly ideal electrical characteristics (η=1.08) and low noise figure of 3.5 (DSB) at Ka-band frequencies.