Design of a Schottky Metal-Brim Structure to Optimize 180–220 GHz Broadband Frequency Doubler MMIC

Abstract

The present work proposes a 180–225 GHz broadband frequency doubler monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) based on a novel Schottky barrier diode (SBD) terminal structure denoted as a Schottky metal-brim (SMB). Compared with an MMIC adopting the conventional SBD terminal structure, preliminary measurements show that the maximum output power of the MMIC adopting the SMB structure increases from 0.216 mW at 206 GHz to 0.914 mW at 208 GHz. Analysis of the nonlinear current–voltage and capacitance–voltage characteristics of the two terminal structures based on an extended one-dimensional drift-diffusion model, indicates that the SMB structure provides significantly better conversion efficiency than the conventional SBD structure by eliminating the accumulation of charge and additional current paths near the Schottky electrode edge. It provides a feasible scheme for the optimization of MMIC applications requiring high power and high efficiency.