Picosecond shock wave generation using an all-silicon nonlinear transmission line

Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTL) use the voltage-dependent reverse-biased capacitance of Schottky diodes distributed along a high impedance transmission line to introduce nonlinear wave propagation effects. The shockwave NLTL, as described in this paper, steepens the leading or falling edge of a large time-domain signal, just like the wave-breaking effect of water on beaches. While traditionally NLTLs were monolithically integrated on GaAs, with the best reported results being the generation of 480 fs and 680 fs transients, we integrate these lines on high resistivity silicon. The advantages include the combination of silicon millimeter wave integrated circuits (SIMMWIC) with the nonlinear transmission line for high frequency applications, such as sampling circuits or high-order frequency multiplication. Integration with Si-SiGe heterostructure bipolar transistors for frequencies above 30 GHz yields new design alternatives.