International Journal of Electrical and Electronics

Engineering Research (IJEEER)

ISSN 2250-155X
Vol. 3, Issue 2, Jun 2013, 233-238
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

COMPARISON OF NOISE MEASUREMENT OF IMPATT DIODE FOR VARIOUS

MATERIALS
JOYDEEP SENGUPTA1 & MONOJIT MITRA2
1

Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur,
Maharashtra, India

Associate Professor, Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering, Bengal Engineering & Science
University, Shibpur, West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT
In this paper the efficiency and the noise measure of the IMPATT diode are important criterion. The efficiency
and the noise measure vary with the semiconductor material used to design the IMPATT diode. The Efficiency and the
noise measure plays an important role in the choice of material that should be used for a given applications. The efficiency
and noise figure of IMPATT diode for Si, GaAs, SiC, InP, GaN are measured and compared.

KEYWORDS: Efficiency, Noise Measure, Electric Field Distribution, Space Charge, Frequency
INTRODUCTION
D.C analysis of the DDR structure was carried out by solving Poissions equation [A. Acharyya (2010)] including
mobile space charge in the depletion layer of the diode.
Poissions equation is given as,

Efficiency
The conversion efficiency is calculated from the approximate formula

(1)
Where, VD = Voltage drop across the drift region, VB = Breakdown voltage and m = multiplication factor.
Avalanche breakdown occurs in the junction when the electric field is large enough such that the charge
multiplication factors (Mn, Mp) become infinite. Again, the breakdown voltage is calculated by integrating the spatial field
profile over the total depletion layer width, i.e.,

Noise Figure
The high ionization rate raises the electric field maximum near the junction to a high value and provides a high
field gradient. These two facts would enhance the carrier multiplication process near the junction, which in turn would

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Joydeep Sengupta & Monojit Mitra

localize the avalanche region of the IMPATT diodes providing a high value of drift voltage drop. A localized avalanche
region width would increase the device efficiency and the high value of drift voltage drop would push up the power output
of the device.
But due to localized avalanche region, noise also increase at the output of the device which degrades the device
performance.
So a crucial noise performance analysis of Si and different compound semiconductor based IMPATT are studied
in detail.
Hence a Noise-Power tradeoff is necessary before reaching to any conclusion. Such a noise power trade off can be
given by Noise Measure which is by definition [Gummel (1967), Hermann (1971)]:
M = (<

>/df )/4KT(-R)

(2)

<v2>/df is the mean square noise voltage per band width (noise spectral density) which can be computed from the
following equation given below :
<

>/df = (2q/Jo.A).

(3)

W and x are the depletion and avalanche region width respectively. Jo is the D.C currentdensity, A is the area of
the diode, K is Boltzmann constant T is temperature in Kelvin. (-R) is the real part of the device impedance.
Noise Measure decreases with increasing value of negative resistance (-R). So this negative resistance (-R) has a
crucial role on the noise performance of IMPATT diode.
W=

(4)

(4)a
(

x=

(4)b
(5)

(5)a
(5)b
The width of the depletion layer and the avalanche region are frequency dependent. It also depends on the
saturation drift velocity of the material used.
Doping Profile
A double drift p+pnn+ structure IMPATT have been designed by using computer simulation technique for
operation at ka Band frequency by using the transit time formula of Sze and Ryder which is Wn,p = 0.37 vsn,sp / f; where
Wn,p, vsn,sp and f are the total depletion layer width (n or pside), saturation velocity of electrons/holes and operating
frequency respectively.
Here n+ and p+-layers are highly doped substrates and n and p are epilayer

Comparison of Noise Measurement of IMPATT Diode for Various Materials

235

Figure 1: The Active Layers of a Reverse Biased p-n Junction

Simulation
The simulation method starts with DC analysis described in details. In this method the computation starts from the
field maximum near the metallurgical junction. The distribution of DC electric field and carrier currents in the depletion
layer is obtained by the double-iterative computer method, which involves iteration over the magnitude of field maximum
(Em) and its location in the depletion layer. A computer algorithm has been developed for simultaneous numerical solution
of Poissons equation, carrier continuity equations and the space charge equation taking into account the effect of mobile
space charge and carrier diffusion in order to obtain the electric field profiles and carrier current profiles. The boundary
conditions for the electric field at the depletion layer edges are given by,
E(-x1)=0

and

E(x2)=0

The Poissions equation is simulated using MATLAB. The flat doping profile is used in the simulation. The
various material parameters used in the simulation are given in the table below. In the computer simulation of DC and
small-signal behaviour of the Si DDR IMPATT diode, the following assumptions are made, viz., (i) one dimensional
model of the p-n junction is treated (Figure 1); (ii) the electron and hole velocities are taken to be saturated and
independent of the electric field throughout the space charge layer.

Figure 2: Materials Parameters

Hence we get different width of depletion region for different frequencies and it also varies with the material used.
`= (

)/(2. v`)

(6)

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Joydeep Sengupta & Monojit Mitra

v`=

(7)

where,
,

are depletion region width in n-type and p-type material respectively.

,

are avalanche region width in n-type and p-type material respectively.

= ionization coefficient in n- type and p- type material respectively.
drift saturation velocity of electrons and holes respectively

and

are rapidly increasing function of electric field.

Experimentally obtained values of

=

exp(-

and

can be approximately fitted with the empirical formula,

/E)

(8)

and
= Ap exp(-bp/E)

(9)

respectively.
Where,
An, bn are Ionization coefficient of electrons and Ap, bp are Ionization coefficient of holes. Different values of
An,bn,Ap,bp,vns,vps for different material are given in the table given.
Simulation Result
The stimulation result of efficiency for various material is shown in the table given below.
Material

Vb

Vd

Si
GaAs
InP
3C SiC
Wz GaN

0.5
1
1.5
2
2

1.71161011
1.48841011
1.15951011
1.45351012
8.76351011

7.20161010
6.26251010
4.87851010
6.11571011
3.68721011

Electric Field Distribution of Various Materials

Efficiency
(%)
13.3927
26.7855
40.1782
53.5709
53.5709

Peak Frequency
(GHz)
34
33
32
33
34

Comparison of Noise Measurement of IMPATT Diode for Various Materials

237

The noise calculation is carried out at different frequencies and compared. The negative resistance of IMPATT
diode is taken from the previous work done for different-different values of frequencies.

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Joydeep Sengupta & Monojit Mitra

CONCLUSIONS
The above results show that the efficiency of 3C SiC and Wz GaN is better than the other materials. Si shows
least efficiency but it is mostly used because of cost efficiency. Applications where efficiency of IMPATT diode is more
important than that of the cost, materials like GaN and SiC should be used.
It is found from the results that the device noise behaviour strongly depends on the negative resistance values.
Noise Measure is inversely proportional with the value of negative resistance of the device. 3C SiC based IMPATT shows
maximum negative resistance value of -8.7 ohm at 33 GHz in Ka-Band and thus having minimum noise measure.
Thus, this simulation method developed may prove to be useful for the designing of low-noise IMPATT diodes. It
is emerged that SiC based IMPATT is most powerful device comparing with other IMPATTs for its low noise
performance.

REFERENCES
1.

A.K.Panda,D.Pavlidis,and AlekseevDC and high frequency characteristics of GaN based IMPATTSIEEE

Trans.Electron Devices,vol48pp 820-823,Apr.2001

2.

J.K.Mishra,A.K.PandaandG.N.Dash.An

extreme

low

noise

hetrojunction

IMPATTIEEE

Trans.Electron.Devices,vol 44 pp2143-2149 Dec 1997

3.

Joydeep Sengupta and Dr. Monojit Mitra Variation of Impedances in Impatt diode at High Frequencies IJECSE
vol 1 issue 6 pp 2015-2019 Oct 2012

4.

Joydeep Sengupta,Dr.Monojit Mitra Comparison of Performance of Impatt Diode for Various Materials IJSER
Vol 4,Issue 6, June 2013 Edition(ISSN 2229-5518)