Varactor Tuners Eliminated an RF Amplifier
There is an urgent demand for low noise varactor tuners for use in TV receivers to meet the requirements of FCC rules. The RF amplifier has been frequently eliminated in mechanical tuners now in use, resulting in good cross-modulation characteristics and low cost. However, the elimination of the RF amplifier has not been attained in varactor tuners, because of high series resistance of varactor diodes. The series resistance of Si diodes at 470 MHz is around 0.7Ω, and is much higher than that of mechanical capacitor, 0.15Ω. To reduce the noise figure of varactor tuners, tuning diodes with low resistance, i. e. below 0.2Ω must be developed. However, few reports have been published on low series resistance diodes for UHF use.
Ion implanted GaAs varactor diodes: capacitance uniformity
Gallium arsenide varactor diodes with low series resistance (∼0.25 Ω) for u.h.f. t.v. tuners are developed. Uniformity and reproducibility of diode capacitance is improved markedly by using improved ion implantation and l.p.e. techniques. The standard deviation of diode capacitance distribution is 0.74% at V = 3.0 V within a wafer. A good r.f. tracking characteristic can be obtained in varactor tuners.
High-Q GaAs tuning varactors
GaAs Schottky barrier tuning varactors with twice the Q of existing varactors will be described. Optimization of varactor diode quality factor Q involved minimization of device series resistance for a given diode breakdown voltage.