Gallium nitride-based resonant tunneling diode oscillators

Abstract

We demonstrated GaN-based resonant tunneling diode (RTD) oscillators employing monolithic microwave integrated circuits. The GaN-based RTDs with a GaN quantum well and AlN double barriers were grown on freestanding c-plane semi-insulating GaN substrates using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The circuit components, including an RTD, a coplanar waveguide, a metal–insulator–metal capacitor, and shunt resistors, were monolithically fabricated on the GaN substrate. The circuits oscillated at a fundamental frequency of 17 GHz, which closely matched an estimated frequency using a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulator and a circuit simulator. This study contributes to the advancement of semiconductor high-frequency devices for millimeter wave and terahertz applications.