Broadband millimeter-wave detector based on triple-barrier resonant tunneling diode and tailored archimedean spiral antenna

In this paper we present a millimeter-wave detector based on a triple-barrier resonant tunneling diode and a broadband Archimedean spiral antenna (ASA). Due to the conjugate matching between them, the power transfer from the receiving antenna to the rectifying diode is maximized. Besides the broadband impedance and radiation characteristics of the ASA, the circular-polarization is an essential property for mobile applications. The detector functionality has been evaluated around 200 GHz by non-linear circuit simulation, where the antenna coupling to an incoming arbitrary polarized wave is incorporated via a three-port touchstone file that has been obtained before by full-wave FEM simulation.