Comparison of the responsivity of W-Ni point contact MBM diodes with W-Si point contact Schottky diodes

The responsivities of the W-Ni point contact MBM diode and the W-Si point contact Schottky diode (commercial 1N23B diode) are compared at 9.5 GHz under identical conditions. The MBM diode has almost half the responsivity of the Schottky diode and was measured to be ≃20 V/W for a 550 Ω termination. The responsivity of the MBM diode decreases with an increase of the frequency. However, this is not due to the RC time constant of MBM diodes, but due to the antenna properties of the whisker and the relaxation behavior of the metallic whisker antenna.