Fabrication and Characterisation of GaAs Gunn Diode Chips for Applications at 77 GHz in Automotive Industry.docVIP

Sensors 2006, 6, 350-360 sensors ISSN 1424-8220 ? 2006 by MDPI /sensors Fabrication and Characterisation of GaAs Gunn Diode Chips for Applications at 77 GHz in Automotive Industry Arno F?rster 1,*, Jürgen Stock 2,#, Simone Montanari 2,#, Mihail Ion Lepsa 2,3 and Hans Lüth 2 1 Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Jülich Campus, Ginsterweg 1, D-52428 Jülich, Germany 2 Research Centre Jülich, Institute of Thin Films and Interfaces (ISG1), D-52425 Jülich, Germany 3 National Institute of Materials Physics, Bucharest, Romania * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. E-Mail: foerster@fh-aachen.de # Present address at Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany Received: 31 August 2006 / Accepted: 4 January 2006 / Published: 7 April 2006 Abstract: GaAs-based Gunn diodes with graded AlGaAs hot electron injector heterostructures have been developed under the special needs in automotive applications. The fabrication of the Gunn diode chips was based on total substrate removal and processing of integrated Au heat sinks. Especially, the thermal and RF behavior of the diodes have been analyzed by DC, impedance and S-parameter measurements. The electrical investigations have revealed the functionality of the hot electron injector. An optimized layer structure could fulfill the requirements in adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems at 77 GHz with typical output power between 50 and 90 mW. Keywords: Gunn diode, microwave generation, GaAs hot electron injector.  Sensors 2006, 6 351 Introduction Automotive electronic systems are permanently increasing in complexity and they are meanwhile integrated in the whole electronic car management. A quite new sensor system is the Adaptive Cruise Control System (ACC) from Robert Bosch Company. The system is based on a microwave generator, which enables the detection of the position and the velocity of cars driving ahead. Depending