An introduction to

Gunn oscillator
And electronics of TEDs

by Pejman Taslimi
represented to Dr. Hassani
Microwave Lab
6th November 2005 – Shahed university of Tehran
Introduction
The application of two-terminal semiconductor devices at microwave frequencies has
been increased usage during the past decades. The CW, average, and peak power outputs of
these devices at higher microwave frequencies are much larger than those obtainable with the
best power transistors.
The common characteristic of all active two-terminal solid-state devices is their
negative resistance. The real part of their impedance is negative over a range of frequencies.
In a positive resistance the current through the resistance and the voltage across it are in
phase. The voltage drop across a positive resistance is positive and a power of (I2R) is
dissipated in the resistance. In a negative resistance, however, the current and voltage are out
of phase by 180°. The voltage drop across a negative resistance is negative and a power of (-
I2R) is generated by the power supply associated with the negative resistance. In other words,
positive resistances absorb power (passive devices), whereas negative resistances generate
power (active devices).
The differences between microwave transistors and transferred electron devices
(TEDs) are fundamental. Transistors operate with either junction or gates, but TEDs are bulk
devices having no junctions or gates. The majority of transistors are fabricated from elemental
semiconductors, such as silicon or germanium, whereas TEDs are fabricated from compound
semiconductors, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphate (InP), or cadmium
telluride (CdTe). Transistors operate with “warm” electrons whose energy is not much
greater than the thermal energy (0.026 eV at room temperature) of electrons in the
semiconductor, whereas TEDs operate with ‘hot” electrons whose energy is very much
greater than the thermal energy. Because of these fundamental differences, the theory and
technology of transistors cannot be applied to TEDs.

GUNN-EFFECT DIODES — GaAs DIODE

Gunn-effect diodes are named after J. B. Gunn, who in 1963 discovered periodic
fluctuations of current passing through the n-type gallium arsenide (GaAs) specimen when
the applied voltage exceeded a certain critical value. Two years later, in 1965, B. C. DeLoach,
R. C. Johnston, and B. G. Cohen discovered the impact ionization avalanche transit-time
(IMPATT) mechanism in silicon, which employs the avalanching and transit-time properties
of the diode to generate microwave frequencies. In later years the limited space-charge-
accumulation diode (LSA diode and the indium phosphate diode (lnP diode) were also
successfully developed. These are bulk devices in the sense that microwave amplification and
oscillation are derived from the bulk negative-resistance property of uniform semiconductors
rather than from the junction negative-resistance property between two different
semiconductors, as in the tunnel diode.

Gunn Effect
A schematic diagram of a uniform n-type GaAs diode with ohmic contacts at the end
surfaces is shown in the figure.
J. B. Gunn observed the Gunn Effect in the n-type GaAs bulk diode in 1963, an effect best
exp1ained by Gunn himself, who published several papers about his observations. He stated
in his first paper that:
Above some critical voltage, corresponding to an electric field of 2000-4000 volts/cm,
the current in every specimen became a fluctuating function of time. In the GaAs
specimens, this fluctuation took the form of a periodic oscillation superimposed upon
the pulse current. . . . The frequency of oscillation is determined mainly by the specimen,
and not by the external circuit ....The period of oscillation was usually inversely
proportional to the specimen length and closely equal to the transit time of electrons
between the electrodes, calculated from their estimated velocity of slightly over 107
cm/s. . . . The peak pulse microwave power delivered by the GaAs specimens to a
matched load was measured. Value as high as 0.5 W at 1 Gc/s, and 0.15 W at 3 Gc/s,
were found, corresponding to 1-2% of the pulse input power.

From Gunn’s observation the carrier

drift velocity is linearly increased from zero
to a maximum when the electric field is
varied from zero to a threshold value. When
the electric field is beyond the threshold
value of 3000 V/cm for the n-type GaAs, the
drift velocity is decreased and the diode
exhibit negative resistance. This situation is
shown in the figure.

The current fluctuations are shown in

the following figures. The current waveform was produced by applying a voltage pulse of 16-
V amplitude and 10-ns duration to a specimen of n-type GaAs 2.5 x 10-3 cm in length. The
oscillation frequency was 4.5 GHz. The lower trace had 2ns/cm in the horizontal axis and
0.23 A/cm in the vertical axis. The upper trace was the expanded view of the lower trace.
Gunn found that the period of these oscillations was equal to the transmit time of the
electrons through the specimen calculated from the threshold current. Gunn also discovered
that the threshold electric field varied with the length and type of material. He developed an
elaborate capacitive probe for plotting the electric field distribution within a specimen of n-
type GaAs of length L = 210 µm and cross-sectional area 3.5 x 10-3 cm2: with a low-field
resistance of 16 Ω. Current instabilities occurred at specimen voltages above 59 V. which
V 59
means that the threshold field is Eth = = = 2810volts / cm
L 210 × 10 −6 × 10 2

Modes of Operation:
Since Gunn first announced his observation of microwave oscillation in the n-type
GaAs and n-type InP diodes in 1963, various modes of operation have been developed,
depending On the material parameters and operation conditions. The formation of a strong
space-charge instability depends on the conditions that enough charge is available in the
crystal and that the specimen is long enough so that the necessary amount of space charge
can be built up within the transit time of the electrons. This requirement sets up a criterion for
the various modes of operation of bulk negative-differential-resistance devices. Copeland
proposed four basic modes of operation of uniformly doped bulk diodes with low-resistance
contacts as shown in the figure below.
 1. Gunn oscillation mode: this mode is defined in the region where the product of
frequency multiplied by length is about 107cm/s and the product of doping multiplied
by length is greater than 1012 cm-2. In this region the device is unstable because of the
cyclic formation of either the accumulation layer or the high-field domain. In a circuit
with relatively low impedance the device operates in the high-field domain mode and
the frequency of oscillation is near the intrinsic frequency. When the device is operated
in a relatively high-Q cavity and coupled properly to the load, the domain is quenched
or delayed (or both) before nucleating. In this case, the oscillation frequency is almost
entirely determined by the resonance frequency of the cavity and has a value of several
times the intrinsic frequency.
2. Stable amplification mode: This mode is defined in the region where the product of
frequency times length is about 107 cm/s and the product of doping times length is
between 1011 and 1012 cm-2.
3. LSA oscillation mode: This mode is defined in the region where the product of
frequency times length is above 107 cm/s and the quotient of doping divided by
frequency is between 2 x 104 and 2 x 105.
4. Bias-circuit oscillation mode: This mode occurs only when there is either Gunn or LSA
oscillation, and it is usually at the region where the product of frequency times length is
too small to appear in the figure. When a bulk diode is biased to threshold, the average
current suddenly drops as Gunn oscillations begin. The drop in current at the threshold
can lead to oscillations in the bias circuit that are typically 1 kHz to 100 MHz.

Gunn oscillation mechanism:

Some bulk semiconductor materials such as
gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphate (InP) and
cadmium telluride (CdTe), have two closely spaced
energy bands in the conduction band. A typical
energy versus momentum band structure is shown in
figure.

At low electric field strengths in the material,

most of the electrons will be located in the lower-
energy band. At high electric field strengths, most of
the electrons will be transferred into the high-energy
band. In the high-energy band the effective electron mass is larger and hence the electron
mobility is lower than what it is in the low-energy band. Since the conductivity is directly
proportional to the mobility, there is an intermediate range of electric field strengths for
which the fraction of electrons that are transferred into the high-energy low-mobility
conduction band is such that the average mobility, and hence conductivity, decreases with an
increase in electric field strength. Thus there is a range of applied voltages over which the
current decreases with increasing voltage and a negative incremental resistance is displayed
by the device. A typical current-voltage characteristic for a Gunn device is shown in figure
below.

A Gunn device is also called a transferred-electron device since the negative resistance
arises from the transfer of electrons from the low to the high-energy band.
The oscillations that occur in materials with the energy band structure noted above was
discovered by J. B. Gunn. The possibility of obtaining negative differential resistance had
been predicted earlier by Ridley and Watkins.
There are two principal modes of operation that result in oscillations for a Gunn
device. When the applied voltage exceeds the
threshold value, a dipole domain (a region of
electron concentration and depletion) forms near
the cathode end with most of the voltage drop
appearing across the high-resistance part of the
device. A short section of the input region is in the
low-energy high-mobility state and electrons leave
the cathode with a large velocity. At the point in
the material that separates the high-mobility and
low-mobility states, electrons accumulate on the left side and are depleted on the right side by
virtue of the different motilities. This dipole arrangement of charge is shown pictorially in
figure.

This dipole domain sweeps across the device and when it arrives at the anode, the
device is in a high-mobility state and a new dipole domain forms at the cathode end and
moves toward the anode. This mechanism is self-repeating and represents an oscillation with
a period equal to the transmit time. This mode of oscillation has a low efficiency (a few
percent) of power generation and a frequency that cannot be controlled by the external
circuit. This mode of oscillation is called the transit time mode or Gunn mode.
The second mode of oscillation is the limited-space-charge (LSA) mode. Operation of a
Gunn oscillator in the LSA mode can produce several watts of power with efficiencies of
around 20 percent or more. The power outputs that have been obtained decrease with
frequency and are below 1 W at frequencies greater
than 10 GHz. Output power of several milliwatts
can be obtained at 100 GHz.
In the LSA mode the Gunn device is incorporated as
part of a resonant circuit. The frequency of the
resonant circuit is adjusted so that it is several times
greater than that of the transit-time mode. As a
consequence, dipole domains do not have sufficient
time to form and the device operates essentially as a
negative-resistance device. The dc bias is adjusted to
a value somewhat greater than the threshold
voltage. The RF voltage of the oscillations will build
up to a peak-peak value approximately equal to the
voltage increment over which the device resistance
is negative as shown.
The resonator loading, represented by the
resistor R, is adjusted to a value about 20 percent
greater than the maximum negative resistance of the
device. This will ensure that oscillations will start.
The amplitude of the oscillations will build up until
the average negative resistance of the Gunn device becomes equal to the resonator resistance
R. If the resonator frequency is adjusted to a value slightly above that of the transit-time
mode, the Gunn device will operate very much like the basic Gunn mode, but the dipole
domain will be quenched before it arrives at the anode by the negative-going oscillation
voltage. This type of operating mode is called a quenched-domain mode. Oscillations can also
occur by adjusting the resonator frequency, so that it is lower than the frequency of the Gunn
mode. In this case the dipole domains have sufficient time to sweep across the device and
arrive at the anode. However, the initiation of a new dipole domain is delayed until the
oscillation voltage rises above the threshold value. This mode of operation is called the
inhibited or delayed mode.

Criterion for Classifying the Modes of Operation

The Gunn-effect diodes are basically made from an n-type GaAs, with the
concentrations of free electrons ranging from 1014 to 1017 per cubic centimetre at room
temperature. Its typical dimensions are 150 x 150 µm in cross section and 30 µm long. During
the early stages of space-charge accumulation, the time rate of growth of the space-charge
ε ε
layers is given by Q( X , t ) = Q( X − vt ,0) exp(t τ d ) , where τ d = = is the magnitude of
σ en0 µ n
the negative dielectric relaxation time,
ε = semiconductor dielectric permittivity n0 = doping concentration
µn = negative mobility e = electron charge
σ = conductivity
Gunn Oscillation Modes (1012/cm2 < (n0L) < 1014/cm2)
Most Gunn-effect diodes have the product of doping and length (n0L) greater than
1012/cm2. However, the mode that Gunn himself observed had a product (n0L) that was much
less. When the product of (n0L) is greater than 1012/cm2 in GaAs, the space-charge
perturbations in the specimen increase exponentially in space and time in accordance with
Q(X,t). Thus a high-field domain is formed and moves from the cathode to the anode as
υ dom
described earlier. The frequency of oscillation is given by the relation f = , where υdom is
Leff
the domain velocity and Leff is the effective length that the domain travels from the time it is
formed until the time that a new domain begins to form.
Gunn described the behaviour of Gunn oscillators under several circuit configurations.
When the circuit is mainly resistive or the voltage across the diode is constant, the period of
oscillation is the time required for the domain to drift from the cathode to the anode. This
mode is not actually typical of microwave applications. Negative conductivity devices are
usually operated in resonant circuits, such as high-Q resonant microwave cavities. When the
diode is in a resonance circuit, the frequency can be tuned to a range of about an octave
without loss of efficiency.
As described previously, the normal Gunn domain
mode (or Gunn oscillation mode) is operated with the electric
field greater than the threshold field (E > Eth). The high-field
domain drifts along the specimen until it reaches the anode or
until the low field value drops below the sustaining field ES
required to maintain υs as shown in the figure. The sustaining
drift velocity for GaAs is υs = 107 cm/s. Since the electron drift
velocity υ varies with the electric field, there are three possible
domain modes for the Gunn oscillation mode.
Transmit time domain mode (fL ≈ 107 cm/s): When the electron drift velocity is equal
to the sustaining velocity υs, the high-field domain is stable. In other words, the electron drift
velocity is given by υd = υs = fL ≈ 107 cm/s. Then the oscillation period is equal so the transit
time--that is, τ0 = τt. This situation is shown in figure below (a). The efficiency is below 10%
because the current is collected only when the domain arrives at the anode.
Delayed domain mode (106 cm/s < fL < 107 cm/s): When the transit time is chosen so
that the domain is collected While E < Eth as shown in figure (b), a new domain cannot form
until the field rises above threshold again. In this case, the oscillation period is greater than
the transit time—that is, τ0 > τt. This delayed mode is also called inhibited mode. The
efficiency of this mode is about 20%.
Quenched domain mode (fL > 2 x 107 cm/s): If the bias field drops below the sustaining
field Es during the negative half-cycle as shown in figure (c), the domain collapses before it
reaches the anode. Then the bias field swings back above threshold, a new domain is
nucleated and the process repeats. Therefore the oscillations occur at the frequency of the
resonant circuit rather than at the transit-time frequency. It has been found that the resonant
frequency of the circuit is several times the transit-time frequency, since one dipole does not
have enough time to readjust and absorb the voltage of the other dipoles. Theoretically, the
efficiency of quenched domain oscillators can reach 13%.
A typical n-type GaAs Gunn diode has the following parameters:
Threshold field Eth = 200 V/cm Applied field E = 3200 V/cm
Device length L = 10 µm Doping Concentration n0 = 2 x 1014
cm-3
Operating frequency f = 10 GHz
Computed electron drift velocity vd = 107 cm/s
Calculated current density J = q n v = 320 A/cm2
Estimated negative electron mobility µn = - vd /E = -3100 cm2/V s

Gunn Oscillator Circuits

The equivalent circuit of a Gunn device operating in the LSA mode
is a negative resistance -Rd in parallel with a capacitance Cd as shown in
figure. The negative resistance has a value that typically lies in the range 5
to -20 Ω. The required resistive loading from the cavity and the external load should be
around 20 percent higher than the Gunn device resistance so that the parallel combination –R
Rd/(R-Rd) will be negative. The cavity used for the resonator must generally have an
impedance-transforming property in order to reduce the high
impedance of the output waveguide to the appropriate low value
required by the Gunn device. A simple cavity structure is shown in
the following figure. The Gunn device is located under a post in a
rectangular waveguide. The cavity is resonated at the desired
frequency by adjusting the short-circuit position. The degree of coupling to the external
waveguide is adjusted by changing the window opening in the inductive diaphragm located
at the front of the cavity. The top of the post is insulated from the waveguide. The dc bias
voltage (typically around 12 V) is applied to the post.

There is sufficient capacity between the post and the surrounding waveguide to
provide an adequate low-impedance RF bypass capacitance and thus RF currents do not flow
through the bias voltage supply. Fine tuning of the cavity can be obtained by means of a
tuning screw.

Also, another simple cavity

arrangement for a Gunn oscillator is
shown as well. In this cavity the high
impedance of the waveguide is
transformed into a low impedance
path at the location of the Gunn device
by means of quarter-wave
transformers. The cavity resonant
frequency can be adjusted by changing
the location of the short circuit. A
tuning screw can be used for fine
tuning of the cavity.
 The cavity first shown above is easily modified to
have two posts, one for mounting the Gunn device and a
second one for mounting a varactor diode. The capacitance
of the varactor diode is a function of the control voltage V.
By varying V, the resonant frequency of the cavity can be
varied.
If a saw-tooth sweep voltage is applied to the varactor
diode, the Gunn oscillator will be frequency-modulated.
The cross section of such cavity is shown.

The Gunn device can be operated as a pulsed

oscillator by applying the dc bias voltage in the form of a pulse train of short rectangular
pulses. If the duty cycle is low enough and very short bias pulses are used, the peak power
output will be limited only by the peak current, since thermal heating of the device will be
negligible during the short on time. For pulsed oscillator applications, the IMPATT diode, or
variations of it, is preferred because of higher output power. The Gunn device can also be,
and has been, used as a negative-resistance amplifier.

Summery
As described earlier, if the applied field is less than
threshold the specimen is stable. While, however, the
field is greater than threshold, the specimen is unstable
and divides up into two domains of different conductivity
and different electric field but the same drift velocity. The
figure shows the stable and unstable regions.

At the initial formation of the accumulation layer,

the field behind the layer decreases and the field in front
of it increase. This process continues as the layer travels
from the cathode toward the anode. As the layer approaches the anode, the field behind it
begins to increase again; and after the layer is collected by the anode, the field in the whole
sample is higher than threshold. When the high-field domain disappears at the anode, a new
dipole field starts forming again at the cathode and the process repeats itself. Since current
density is proportional to the drift velocity of the electrons, a pulsed current output is
obtained. The oscillation frequency of the pulsed current is given by f = vd/Leff, where vd is
the velocity of the domain or approximately the drift velocity of the electrons and L is the
effective length that the domain travels. Experiments have shown that the n-type GaAs
diodes have yielded 200 W pulses at 3.05 GHz and 780-mW CW power at 8.7 GHz.
Efficiencies of 29% have been obtained in pulsed operation at 3.05 GHz and 5.2% in CW
operation at 24.8 GHz. Predictions have been made that 250-kW pulses from a single block of
n-type GaAs are theoretically possible up to 100GHz.
 The source generation of solid-state microwave devices has many advantages over the
vacuum tube devices they are beginning to replace. However, at present they also have
serious drawbacks that could prevent more widespread application. The most important
disadvantages are:
1. Low efficiency at frequencies above 10 GHz
2. Small tuning range
3. Large dependence of frequency on temperature
4. High noise

These problems are common to both avalanche

diodes and transferred electron devices.
The figure shows the latest state-of-the-art
performance for GaAs and InP Gunn diodes. The
numbers adjacent to the data points indicate
efficiency in percent. Gunn diode oscillators have
better noise performance than IMPATTS. They are
used as local oscillators for receivers and as primary
sources where CW powers of up to 100 mW are
required. InP Gunn diodes have higher power and
efficiency than GaAs Gunn diodes.

References:
• Microwave devices and circuits – Samuel Y. Liao – ISBN:0135812070
• Foundations for microwave engineering – Robert E. Collin – ISBN:0-07-011811-6