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200847 Rev. A Skyworks Proprietary Information Products and Product Information are Subject to Change Without Notice. October 3, 2008
1
Silicon Schottky Barrier Diodes: Packaged, Bondable Chips
and Beam-Leads
data sheet
Applications
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Detectors
Features
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Both P-type and N-type low barrier silicon available
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Low 1/f noise
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Bonded junctions for reliability
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Planar passivated beam-lead and chip construction
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See also zero bias silicon schottky barrier detector diodes
Description
Skyworks packaged, beam-lead and chip Schottky barrier detector
diodes are designed for applications through 40 GHz in Ka band.
They are made by the deposition of a suitable barrier metal on an
epitaxial silicon substrate to form the junction. The process and
choice of materials result in low series resistance along with a
narrow spread of capacitance values for close impedance control.
p-type silicon is used to obtain superior 1/f noise characteristics.
n-type silicon is also available.
Packaged diodes are suitable for use in waveguide, coaxial, and
stripline applications.
Beam-lead and chip diodes can also be mounted in a variety of
packages or on special customer substrates.
Unmounted beam-lead diodes are especially well suited for use in
MIC applications. Mounted beam-lead diodes can be easily used in
MIC, stripline or other such circuitry.
The “Universal Chips” are designed for a high degree of device
reliability in both commercial and industrial uses. The offset
bond pad assures that no mechanical damage will occur at the
junction during the wire bonding. Additionally the 4 mil bond pad
eliminates performance variation due to bonding and is ideal for
automated assembly, and improves efficiency during manual
operations as well.
The choice on n- and p-type silicon allows for the designer to opti-
mize the silicon material for the intended application.
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Doppler mixers, high-sensitivity detectors will benefit from using
the low noise characteristics of the p-type silicon.
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Low conversion loss mixers and biased detectors can be
designed using standard n-type material.
Applications
These diodes are categorized by TSS (Tangential Signal Sensitivity)
for detector applications in four frequency ranges: S, X, Ku, and Ka
band. However, they can also be used as modulators, high-speed
switches and low-power limiters.
TSS is a parameter that describes a diode’s detector sensitivity. It
is defined as the amount of signal power, below a one-milliwatt
reference level, to produce an output pulse whose amplitude is
sufficient to raise the noise fluctuations by an amount equal to the
average noise level. TSS is approximately 4 dB above the Minimum
Detectable Signal.
The p-type Schottky diodes in this data sheet are optimized for
low noise, in the 1/f region. They require a small forward bias (to
reduce video resistance) if efficient operation is required. Bias not
only increases sensitivity but also reduces parameter variation
due to temperature change. Video impedance is a direct function
of bias and follows the 26/l (mA) relationship. This is important to
pulse fidelity, since the video impedance in conjunction with the
detector output capacitance affects the effective amplifier
bandwidth.
Bias does, however, increase typical noise, particularly in the 1/f
region. Therefore, it should be kept at as low a level as possible
(typically 5–50 microamps). Typical voltage output versus power
input as a function of load resistance and bias is shown in Figures
1a and 1b.