Electro-Thermal Model for Multi-Anode Schottky Diode Multipliers

We present a self-consistent electro-thermal model for multi-anode Schottky diode multiplier circuits. The thermal model is developed for an n-anode multiplier via a thermal resistance matrix approach. The nonlinear temperature responses of the material are taken into consideration by using a linear temperature-dependent approximation for the thermal resistance. The electro-thermal model is capable of predicting the hot spot temperature, providing useful information for circuit reliability study as well as high power circuit design and optimization. Examples of the circuit analysis incorporating the electro-thermal model for a substrateless- and a membrane-based multiplier circuits, operating up to 200 GHz, are demonstrated. Compared to simulations without thermal model, the simulations with electro-thermal model agree better with the measurement results. For the substrateless multiplier, the error between the simulated and measured peak output power is reduced from ~ 13% to ~ 4% by including the thermal effect.