Open AccessImpedance tuning with photoconductors to 40 GHz
Author(s) -
Drisko Jasper A.,
Feldman Ari D.,
Quinlan Franklyn,
Booth James C.,
Orloff Nathan D.,
Long Christian J.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iet optoelectronics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.379
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1751-8776
pISSN - 1751-8768
DOI - 10.1049/iet-opt.2018.5102
Subject(s) - microwave , electrical impedance , coplanar waveguide , optoelectronics , materials science , schottky diode , equivalent circuit , detector , semiconductor , voltage , optics , electrical engineering , physics , computer science , engineering , diode , telecommunications
Light is widely used to control a variety of microwave devices, including switches, antennas, and detectors. Here, the authors present a photoconductive device integrated into a coplanar waveguide to tune complex impedances at microwave frequencies with applied light. The authors measured the current–voltage characteristics of the device as a function of the applied light intensity and fit the behavior to a known metal‐semiconductor‐metal junction model with two Schottky barriers. The authors also measured the frequency‐dependent scattering parameters and extracted the device impedances in a Pi‐network model. The devices showed three orders of magnitude impedance tunability from 100 MHz to 40 GHz, and the authors developed a circuit model to fit the frequency‐dependent impedances. This simple device has applications in microwave electronics, microwave metrology, and multi‐state calibrations.