Novel High-Power Solid-State Sources for the Millimeter-Wave Region.
Abstract
The goal of this two-year program was to create two new sources for ultrafast electronic circuits. Two technical approaches were pursued. The first was a cw optoelectronic photomixer using low- temperature-grown (LTG) GaAs as the active material. Prior to this research, little work had been done on cw photomixers at millimeter-wave (i.e., f> 30 GHz) or higher frequencies. The primary limitation was the lack of a suitably fast photoconductive material. LTG GaAs is a promising material for this application because of its short photoconductive lifetime and robust electrical properties. Through the research carried out on this program, the photomixer was developed into a very useful source for frequencies above 1006Hz. The second approach was an electronic pulse generator using a resonant-tunneling diode (RTD) as the active device. The basis for this generator was the high switching speed of the (RTD) when connected to a low-impedance transmission line. Previous work had produced single high-speed switching events in RTDs, but the switching d not heen made self- induced and repetitive. In this effort self-generated pulse trains were produced having a pulse width of approximately 25ps, a repetition rate up to 36Hz, and a pulse amplitude of approximately 0.5 V. One attractive feature of the RTh pulse generator is that it can be modified to generate several useful types of pulse waveforms, such as the impulse function and square waves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 06, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA292653
Entities
People
- E. R. Brown
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology