Beam lead GaAs Schottky barrier mixer diode for SHF band

A beam lead GaAs Schottky barrier mixer diode of high performance has been developed for SHF band. The N-N⁺⁺double epitaxial layers and thick polyimide insulating film reduce respectively series resistance and stray capacitance down to 0.5Ω and 0.03pF. A cut-off frequency calculated including stray capacitance and using DC resistance values exceeds 2,000GHz. Applying the device to an SHF down-converter, an overall noise figure as low as 4.3dB and conversion loss as low as 3.0dB have been achieved at 12 GHz. This converter could serve to receive fine TV pictures from satellite broadcasting.