High-frequency high-power static induction transistor

Abstract

The principal operating mechanism of the static induction transistor (SIT) that shows exponential rather than the saturated <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">I-V</tex> characteristics, is based on the static induction of both gate and drain voltages. It is known that the SIT has low noise, low distortion, and high audio-frequency power capability. The SIT is also a very promising device for high-frequency and high-power operation because of its short channel length, low gate series resistance, small gate-source capacitance, and small thermal resistance. Si SIT's which generate a 40-W output power at 200 MHz and 10 W at 1 GHz, with a cutoff frequency higher than 2.5 GHz, have been fabricated. This is the first step toward the realization of a power microwave SIT. Future developments of a higher power higher frequency SIT can be realized by employing a distributed electrode structure and traveling-wave operation.