A packaged Schottky diode as detector, harmonic mixer, and harmonic generator in the 25–500 GHz range

Abstract

This paper describes experimental results obtained with a packaged GaAs Schottky barrier diode in contact with a coaxial connector and placed across waveguides for bands Ka, V, E, W or F. Among the microwave sources used for calibration were 9 carcinotrons in the frequency interval 51–490 GHz. As soon as the frequency F is above the waveguide cut-off frequency, the different characteristics do not depend critically on the waveguide size for V, E, W and F bands. The video detection sensitivity, of several 100 mV/mW at 50 GHz and below, decreases as F⁻⁴ in the range 51–500 GHz. Coupling an X-band centimeter frequency via the coaxial connector and a millimeter frequency via the waveguide permits harmonic mixing in the diode. Between 36 and 490 GHz, the harmonic mixing number varies from 3 up to the very large value 40 with conversion losses from 18 to 88 dB. The minimum detectable signal in the 100 kHz band can be as low as −90 dBm at 80 GHz. A noticeable millimeter power is available at the waveguide output from injected centimeter power by harmonic generation. Starting for instance with 100 mW around 11.5 GHz, we have measured 0.1 mW at 80 GHz and 0.1 μW at 230 GHz. To illustrate the possibility of creating usable millimeter and submillimeter wave without heavy equipment (such as carcinotrons or millimeter klystron) we report spectroscopic experiments in Rydberg atoms. Resonances have been observed up to 340 GHz by harmonic generation (28th harmonic) from an X-band klystron).