A parameter extraction method of the PIN diode for physics‐based circuit simulation over a wide frequency range

Abstract

The accurate physical parameters of the semiconductor devices are critical to the physics-based circuit simulation, which solves the carrier transport equations to model the semiconductor devices. However, the conventional method extracts physical parameters from low-frequency measurements such as the DC I-V curve, which cannot work at high frequencies. To overcome this problem, we propose a physical parameter extraction method of the PIN diode working well from DC to microwave frequencies. Specifically, because the transit-time effects are dependent on the working frequencies and input power levels, the operation modes of the PIN diode can be divided into three cases from DC to microwave frequencies; therefore, the proposed method extracts the parameters from three measured curves, including the DC I-V curve, a small-signal, and a large-signal voltage waveform both at a microwave frequency. Experiments of a PIN diode SMP1330 circuit show that the error of the conventional method is about 45% at frequencies above 300 MHz, but the maximum error of the proposed method is only 9.5% from DC to 2 GHz. Moreover, the conventional method is unable to characterize the conductance modulation phenomenon, which leads to unexpected signal reflections in PIN limiter circuits and the missing of information in radio transceivers.

Analysis of a p-i-n Diode Circuit at Radio Frequency Using an Electromagnetic-Physics-Based Simulation Method

“…For example, it is mentioned in the literature that the simulation of a simple circuit containing a PIN diode using ADS at 20 MHz did not show the phenomenon of "punch-through" current, which is not consistent with experiments [10]. Among the available techniques, a hybrid solver that combines the capabilities of a physicsbased simulation and a full-wave analysis has attracted researchers' interest, particularly because of its ability to account for the presence of lumped components in a distributed circuit [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. This is based on semiconductor device physical models, rather than equivalent models, and solves field equations such as the Maxwell equations, semiconductor transport equations, and thermodynamics equations, to model the electromagnetic wave propagation and charge transport with the temperature effects inside semiconductor devices.…”

Experimental Study of High Power Microwave Injection in Radar Receiving Front-end

“…With the development of radar solid-state, most existing radars adopt PIN limiters for protection [3] . In the research on existing PIN limiters, the tolerance threshold and nonlinear performance of PIN limiter [4] are mainly studied from the aspects of PIN diode modeling and heating simulation [5][6][7] , PIN diode DC voltage injection [8] and PIN limiter RF injection [9,10] , etc., but few studies have been conducted on the radar receiving front end in combination with limiter and low noise amplifier. In this paper, the RF injection test is conducted on the radar receiving front-end system, the tolerance threshold is measured, the relationship between the damage of the receiving front-end and the injected signal power, pulse width, duration, and other factors is studied, and the influence of high-power microwave weapons on radar at different distances is analyzed, which can provide theoretical support for the RF front-end protection design of radar.…”