Impact of Diode Geometry on Local Oscillator Breakthrough in Sub-Harmonic Mixers

An investigation in to the asymmetry of the current-voltage characteristics and the local-oscillator breakthrough in anti-parallel diode sub-harmonic mixers is presented. Twenty nine bare anti-parallel diode pair circuits, have been used to identify those aspects of the diode geometry, that have a strong influence on the diode mismatch and consequently the local-oscillator breakthrough. The circuits were fabricated on a six-inch gallium arsenide high electron mobility transistor process.