Design and simulation of a 600 GHz RTD oscillator using commercial harmonic balance software

Abstract

We report on the design and optimisation of a 600 GHz double barrier resonant tunneling diode (RTD) oscillator. Using the simple Esaki equivalent circuit diode model and published DC experimental I-V data, a custom device model was developed and integrated within a commercial harmonic balance (HB) simulator. This technique utilizes a spline interpolation algorithm as part of the device model to determine instantaneous values of device voltage and current when called from within the main HB software. The maximum oscillation frequency for a 5 ohms load was 1.6 THz, whilst optimisation at 600 GHz was achieved with a 15 ohms load, with an output power of 420 micron W. The present technique should facilitate and simplify simulation of both existent and novel non-linear devices in other configurations, such as multipliers, mixers, self- oscillating mixers, etc.