Millimeter-Band Oscillations Based on Resonant Tunneling in a Double-Barrier Diode at Room Temperature

A double-barrier diode at room temperature has yielded oscillations with fundamental frequencies up to 56 GHz and second harmonics up to 87 GHz. The output powers at these frequencies were about 60 and 18 μW, respectively. These results are attributed to a recent improvement in the material parameters of the device and to the integration of the device into a waveguide resonator. The most successful diode to date has thin (∼1.5 nm) AlAs barriers, a 4.5-nm-wide GaAs quantum well, and 2×1017 cm -3 doping concentration in the n-GaAs outside the barriers. This particular diode is expected to oscillate at frequencies higher than those achieved by any reported p-n tunnel diode.