Record Fast Recovery Performance from Microwave High-Power Limiters with All-GaN SBD-MMIC Technology: 39 ns@100 W

In this work, we report a major breakthrough in the recovery performance of microwave high-power limiters, which is realized by utilizing all GaN Schottky barrier diodes monolithic microwave integrated circuit (All-GaN SBD-MMIC) technology. GaN SBDs benefit from thin AlGaN barrier epitaxy, allowing a recess-free process in the Schottky region to achieve low capacitance to reach less than 1.5 Ω/0.46 pF. Meanwhile, the SBD obtains V_BV of 100 V and JFOM of 23 THz.V. The intrinsic parameters of GaN-SBD suitable for lateral heterojunction structures are developed, and a SPICE model that can be applied to RF simulation is extracted through designed de-embedding patterns. Furthermore, the fabricated limiter MMIC reveals high incident power above 50 W in continuous wave mode (CW), over 125 W in pulse mode, insertion loss (IL) of less than 1 dB@8 GHz, and a record fast recovery time of 39 ns. The simulation and measurement results are well-agreed with each other. This demonstrates shows that the GaN SBD-based limiter is promising for future high-power and fast recovery time applications.