Sensitivity of Asymmetrically Necked Planar Millimeter-Wave Detectors

A numerical investigation of a thin asymmetrically shaped planar diode, which is in fact a microwave detector operating over a broad frequency range, is performed. A finite-difference time-domain method with sub-cell technique is applied to accomplish the modeling. Optimization of the diode frequency response is carried out. The sensitivity of the optimized diode is nearly independent of frequency from 26 up to 143 GHz. Acceptable level of reflection from the detector over the whole frequency range is obtained.