Characterization of Metal-Semiconductor Schottky Diodes and Application on THz Detection

Abstract

This paper presents a kind of air-bridged GaAs Schottky diodes which offer ultra low parasitic capacitance and series resistance in millimeter and THz wavelength. The Schottky barrier diodes have several advantages when used as millimeter wave and terahertz video, or power detectors. These include their fast time response, room temperature operation, simple structure and low cost. This paper describes the characterization of the metal-semiconductor Schottky diodes including principle, diode structure, non-linear voltage-current characteristic and signal-rectifying performance. For application, a quasi-optical THz detector was made by using the proposed Schottky diodes. It utilized a hyper hemispherical silicon lens to coupleand THz radiation to the diodes by integrating on a broadband planar bow-tie antenna. The measurement results of the Schottky diode based detector show a good room temperature performance.