Effect of Tunneling on Small Signal Characteristics of IMPATT Diodes with SiC Heteropolytype Structures

SiC heteropolytype structures indicate important applications in high frequency, large power solid devices etc. In this paper, the impact avalanche transit time (IMPATT) and mixed tunneling avalanche transit time (MITATT) diodes with heteropolytype consisting of two semiconductors among the 3C-SiC, 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC are numerically simulated to investigate the static state and small signal characteristics at the atmospheric window frequency of 1.56 THz. The breakdown voltage, avalanche voltage, peak value of static electric field, the maximum generation rates of avalanche and tunneling, power conversion efficiency, admittance-frequency relation of the proposed SiC heteropolytype diodes are calculated, respectively. Comparing the obtained parameters of IMPATT diodes with those of MITATT devices, the results imply that tunneling shows little influence on the small signal performance of the heteropolytype IMPATT diodes included 3C-SiC material, which is different from those of the homopolytype counterparts.