TUNNEL DIODE AND RESONANT TUNNELING DIODE CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING

Abstract

Besides negative differential resistance (NDR) feature, the most valuable property of resonant tunneling diode (RTD) is its high-speed operation. The RTD has become a promising applicant for use in high-speed circuits since it has been shown to operate at frequencies up to 2.5THz [1]. In addition to that, the use of RTDs in electronic circuits can help reduce the complexity of the system [2]. These virtues make resonant tunnel diode a good choice for the building block in complex and high-speed communication systems, such as Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) radio IC. For circuit design purposes, an accurate model is needed to carry out circuit simulation and performance optimization. Throughout this project, a model for the tunnel diode and another model for the one-peak resonant tunneling diode were derived and implemented in circuit simulation tools. The new models, which were developed from a carefully mathematical analysis of measured data, exhibit a great flexibility that allows circuit designers adjust the model’s parameters to obtain the characteristics that accurately describes the behaviors of the devices.