Picosecond duration, large-amplitude impulse generation using electrical soliton effects on monolithic GaAs devices

Abstract

The authors report two devices which generate picosecond-duration electrical impulses using soliton propaganda effects. A high-repetition-rate device has generated an 8.1-V/sub p-p/ (87-mA/sub p-p/), 4.5-ps full width at half maximum (FWHM) impulse train at a 31.5-GHz rate. A high compression ratio device has generated an 11.4-V/sub p.p/ (122-mA/sub p-p/), 5.1-ps FWHM impulse train at a 9-GHz rate (sinusoidal input), and a 12.1-V/sub p-p/ (130 mA/sub p-p/), 4.9-ps FWHM impulse train at a 3.22-GHz repetition rate (28-ps FWHM impulse train input). These electrical impulses were generated through soliton propagation effects on nonlinear transmission lines. Generation of 3.9-V/sub p-p/, 5.5-ps FWHM impulses was reported previously. The two devices reported here produce more than ten times larger peak output power (1.57 W). The amplitudes are comparable with current step recovery diodes but have four to six times shorter duration, and these devices are monolithically integrable with other GaAs devices.