The effect of junction temperature on the output power of a silicon IMPATT diode

The pronounced sensitivity of output-power/junction-temperature choracteristics for some silicon IMPATT diodes, which has been demonstrated by a number of authors, is shown to be related to the fact that the drift region of the epitaxial layer is not entirely punched through at lower junction temperatures. It is shown that a simple measurement of the static dVb/dT characteristic may be used to select diodes with power output characteristics that are relatively insensitive at a given frequency to junction temperature variations.