Development of Ultra-Fast Silicon Switches for Active X-Band High Power RF Compression Systems

• Published in: Proceedings of the 2005 Particle Accelerator Conference pp. 701 - 703
• Main Authors: Jiquan Guo, Tantawi, S.G.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2005
• Subjects: CMOS process; Diodes; Doping; Nanofabrication; Power semiconductor switches; Pulse compression methods; Radio frequency; Silicon on insulator technology; Switching circuits; Waveguide discontinuities
• ISBN: 9780780388598; 0780388593
• ISSN: 1944-4680
• DOI: 10.1109/PAC.2005.1590533

In this paper, we present the recent results of our research on the high power ultra-fast silicon RF switches. This switch is composed of a group of PIN diodes on a high purity SOI (silicon on oxide) wafer. The wafer is inserted into a cylindrical waveguide under TE01 mode, performing switching by injecting carriers into the bulk silicon. Our current design use a CMOS compatible process and the device was fabricated at SNF(Stanford Nanofabrication Facility). This design is able to achieve sub-100ns switching time, while the switching speed can be improved further with 3-D device structure and faster circuit. Power handling capacity of the switch is at the level of 10MW. The switch was designed for active X-band RF pulse compression systems - especially for NLC, but it is also possible to be modified for other applications and other frequencies such as L-band.