quired, such as in variable attenuators, phase

shifters, linearizers, variable gain amplifiers,

electronically steered array antennas, etc. In
general, a PIN diodes RF resistance is con-
trolled by adjusting the bias current, since it is
known that a PIN diode works as a current-
controlled device. Under constant current bias
conditions, however, the RF resistance of
commercially available PIN diodes varies with
temperature, which results in the RF attenua-
tion also varying with temperature.
Several vendors have developed digital as
well as analog compensation circuits to
achieve the required attenuation accuracy
over the operating temperature range. How-
ever, they have the disadvantage of a relatively
complex circuit with higher part-count and
size, and lower reliability.
S.C. BERA, R.V. SINGH AND V.K. GARG
Space Applications Centre (ISRO), India
I
n this article a temperature dependent
equivalent circuit of a forward-biased PIN
diode is discussed. Using this equivalent
circuit, the temperature behavior of a PIN
diode attenuator circuit is analyzed and test
results are presented. A novel control circuit is
also offered for temperature invariant variable
attenuation over a very wide range of temper-
ature. This proposed circuit uses no separate
temperature sensor or compensating mecha-
nism, but responds directly to the junction
temperature of the PIN diode. The junction
temperature of the PIN diode modifies the
diode current in such a way that its RF resis-
tance remains invariant over the temperature
range. This prevents any errors caused by
temperature gradients, or by self-heating of
the diodes due to high RF levels.
PIN diodes have been widely used in vari-
ous microwave and RF applications wherever
an electronically variable RF resistance is re-
A TEMPERATURE
DEPENDENT PIN DIODE
MODEL FOR SIMPLE
TEMPERATURE INVARIANT
ATTENUATOR CIRCUITS
Reprinted with permission of MICROWAVE JOURNAL

from the February 2005 issue.

2005 Horizon House Publications, Inc.

A temperature dependent, for-
ward-biased PIN diode equivalent
circuit is presented. The analysis of
this circuit leads to a variable attenua-
tor that offers a temperature invariant
attenuation without sacrificing the
simplicity and reliability of the cir-
cuit. This extremely simple topology
exploits an interesting feature of the
PIN diode to achieve good tempera-
ture stability and ease of adjustment.
DIODE MODEL
Figure 1 shows the equivalent cir-
cuit of a forward-biased PIN diode.
Here, R
J
is the junction resistance of
the diode obtained from the well
known I-V relationship given by
1
where
E
b
band gap potential of the
semiconductor in volts
ideality factor of the diode
q electron charge
k Boltzmans constant
n temperature exponent
A constant, independent on the
temperature T
I V T AT exp
q V E
kT
d d
n d b
,

( )
( )

( )

1
R
I
is the effective high frequency re-
sistance of the diode which is related
to the DC bias current
2
and the oper-
ating temperature,
3,4
by the relation
where
C
I
equivalent I layer capacitance
R
S
series resistance
L
P
package inductance
C
P
package capacitance
L
h
high value inductor included to
separate the DC and RF circuit
components
C
h
high value capacitor included to
separate the DC and RF circuit
components
TEST RESULTS
Figure 2 shows the MIC layout
and assembly drawing of a C-band
(3.4 to 4.0 GHz) attenuator circuit
used to prove the temperature de-
pendent PIN diode model and the
design principles presented here. D1
and D2 are the beam lead PIN
diodes (MPND-4005) mounted in a 3
dB Lange coupler. The HP EEsofs
Series-IV Libra simulator was used to
simulate and analyze the circuit.
Figure 3 shows the measured and
simulated IV characteristic of the
R I T z
T
I V T
I d
m
d d
p
,
,
( )

( )

( )

2
2
PIN diode at three different diode
temperatures. The fitting parameters
of Equation 1 are n 2, E
b
2.12 V
and 2.1. The voltage and current
of the diode are measured by apply-
ing a pulsed voltage to avoid self-
heating of the diode.
Figure 4 shows the measured and
simulated attenuation versus DC bias
current for the diode at three differ-
ent temperatures at a frequency of 3.7
GHz. The fitting parameters of Equa-
tion 2 are m 1.15, p 0.88, R
s
4.5
, C
I
0.02 pF and L
p
C
p
.
Figure 5 shows the measured and
simulated attenuation performance
over the frequency band of 3.4 to 4.0
GHz at three different constant bias
current (0.18, 0.38, 0.68 mA) settings
at three different operating tempera-
tures (10, +22, +60C).
TECHNI CAL FEATURE
R
J
R
I
L
h
C
h
C
I
C
P
L
P
R
S
L Fig. 1 Equivalent circuit of a PIN diode.
IN
D1 D2
OUT
L Fig. 2 MIC layout and assembly drawing
of a PIN diode attenuator.
I
d

(
m
A
)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.45 0.55 0.65 0.75 0.85
MEASURED SIMULATED
V
d
(V)
+60C
+22
10
L Fig. 3 I-V characteristics of a PIN diode.
A
T
T
E
N
U
A
T
I
O
N

(
d
B
)
20
15
10
5
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
I
d
(mA )
MEASURED SIMULATED
10+22+60C
L Fig. 4 Attenuation vs. bias current.
A
T
T
E
N
U
A
T
I
O
N

(
d
B
)
25
20
15
10
5
0
3.35 3.55 3.75 3.95
FREQUENCY (GHz)
0.68
mA
0.38
mA
0.18
mA
MEASURED
SIMULATED +60C
+60C
TESTED
SIMULATED +22C
+22C
TESTED
SIMULATED 10C
10C
L Fig. 5 Attenuation vs. frequency for
different currents and temperatures.
ATTENUATOR
R
V
L Fig. 6 Simple bias circuit of an
attenuator.
A
T
T
E
N
U
A
T
I
O
N

(
d
B
)
20
15
10
20 0 20 40 60
TEMPERATURE (C)
V 1.19 V
V 0.9 V
V 20 V
L Fig. 7 Attenuator vs. temperature for
different bias sources.

It also shows how the attenuation
varies when the PIN diode is biased
by a constant current. An attenuation
setting of 20 dB at 10C decreases
to 15 dB at a temperature of 60C
when the bias current of each diode
is kept constant at 0.68 mA.
All the plots have shown good
agreement between simulated and
measured results, which proves the
validity and accuracy of the tempera-
ture dependent PIN diode model un-
der forward bias condition.
A simple bias circuit for the PIN
diode attenuator consists of a voltage
source V and a series resistor R, as
shown in Figure 6. This circuit has
been simulated and analyzed using
the described equivalent circuit of
the PIN diode to see the effect of the
bias circuit on attenuation over the
temperature range. These simulated
results are shown in Figure 7. It
shows very interesting characteristics
of the attenuator:
The attenuation decreases with in-
creasing temperature when PIN
diodes are biased by a very high volt-
age source and high value of bias re-
sistor (equivalent to constant current
source bias).
The attenuation increases with an
increase of the temperature when
PIN diodes are biased by a low volt-
age and low value of bias resistor.
The attenuation remains invariant
with temperature when the diodes
are biased with a voltage source of
1.19 V.
The measured results of the atten-
uator when the diodes are biased
with a voltage source of 1.19 V are
shown in Table 1. The different at-
tenuation settings, from 0 to 20 dB in
steps of 5 dB, are achieved by setting
different values of the resistor R. This
table shows that the peak-to-peak
variation of all the step attenuations is
less than 0.5 dB over the temperature
range of 10 to +60C and over the
entire 3.4 to 4.0 GHz frequency
band.
Thus, from the above discussions,
it can be concluded that for conven-
tional constant current bias condi-
tions, the attenuation of a PIN diode
attenuator changes with temperature.
When the PIN diode is biased by an
optimum voltage source of 1.19 V
(for a MPND4005 diode), however,
the current through the diode is con-
trolled in such a way that the RF re-
sistance of the diode remains con-
stant over the temperature range.
THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS
To achieve a temperature invariant
attenuation of the PIN diode attenua-
tor, the bias network must meet the
current required to achieve a con-
stant RF resistance, R
IO
, of the PIN
diode, over the temperature range.
Therefore, by combining Equations 1
and 2 and setting R
I
R
IO
,
where V
d
(T) is given by
This parametric equation is the equa-
tion of the ideal bias-point locus that
will satisfy R
I
R
IO
across the temper-
ature range. This locus is called the
equi-resistance curve for the required
RF resistance R
IO
.
Figure 8 shows the plot of Equa-
tion 3 for the MPND-4005 diode
over the temperature range of 260
to + 300C for an RF resistance R
IO

70 . The constant resistance curve

is highly linear within the tempera-
ture range of interest. Thus, the load
line of the simple bias circuit can be
adjusted to coincide with this curve
within the temperature range of in-
terest and will then maintain the de-
sired RF resistance. The voltage of
the bias network will be the voltage
intercept of the bias line and resis-
tance will be the reciprocal of the
slope of bias line.
Combining Equations 3 and 4 and
eliminating the parameter T, another
V T
E
kT
qp
ln
z
A R
T
d
b
p
IO
m np
( )

( )

2
4

( )
I V T T
AT exp
q V T E
kT
d d
n
d b
( ) ( )

( ) ( )

_
,

3))
TECHNI CAL FEATURE
TABLE I
ATTENUATOR TEST RESULTS FOR V 1.19 V
Temperature (C) 10 +25 +60
Frequency (GHz) 3.40 3.55 3.70 3.85 4.00 3.40 3.55 3.70 3.85 4.00 3.40 3.55 3.70 3.85 4.00
5.01 4.96 4.95 4.97 5.02 5.03 4.99 4.98 5.01 5.07 4.99 4.96 4.96 4.99 5.06
Attenuation (dB)
9.94 9.92 9.96 10.00 10.14 9.98 9.97 10.01 10.09 10.21 10.00 9.99 10.03 10.11 10.24
14.85 14.83 14.87 14.96 15.14 14.95 14.93 14.99 15.10 15.28 14.98 14.97 15.03 15.15 15.35
20.15 19.96 19.86 19.83 19.92 20.30 20.11 20.02 20.00 20.09 20.31 20.14 20.05 20.04 20.15
1.2
0.8
0.4
0
0 0.6 1.2
E
b
2.12 V
2.1
n 2.0
m 1.15
p 0.88
I
d

(
m
A
)
V
d
(V)
+60C
10C
V
opt
BIAS
LOAD LINE
EQUI-
RESISTANT
CURVE
L Fig. 8 Equi-resistance curve and load
line for the MPND-4005 diode.
V
o
p
t

(
V
)
1.23
1.19
1.15
ATTENUATION (dB)
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20
+60C
+22C
10C
L Fig. 9 Variation of V
opt
with temperature
and attenuation.
R
V
opt
L Fig. 10 Temperature invariant variable
PIN diode attenuator circuit.

form of the equation of the equi-re-
sistance curve can be written as
The equation of the tangent to this
equi-resistance curve at the diode
voltage V
x
and corresponding current
I
x
at temperature T
x
is given by
Taking this tangent to be the opti-
mum load line, its voltage intercept is
This optimum voltage V
opt
will be the
open circuit voltage of the bias net-
work.
Figure 9 shows the variation of
V
opt
for different attenuation (5, 10,
15, 20 dB) requirements (corre-
sponding to different V
x
) at three dif-
ferent temperatures (10, + 25,
+60C). It is clear that V
opt
is nearly
invariant about the value of 1.19 V for
different attenuations and tempera-
tures. Theoretically it can be shown
that for all practical values of diode
parameters n, m and p the value of
V
opt
will be invariant over a wide
range of temperature for different
values of attenuation.
V V
p
m
E V
kT
q
pn
m
opt x b x
x
+
( )
+

_
,

2
2
1 7

( )

V V
p
m
E V
kT
q
pn
m
d x b x
x
+
( )
+

_
,

2
2
1 1

( )
I
I
d
x

6
V E
k
q
R I
z
ln
z
R
d b
IO d
p
m
IO
n
+

_
,

_
,

1
2
2

( )
m
d
pn
m
AI
1
5
2
1

CONTROL CIRCUIT
FOR VARIABLE ATTENUATOR
From the above theoretical discus-
sion and test results it is clear that the
equi-resistance curves of the PIN
diode become straight lines over a
very wide range of temperature and
the optimum load lines for different
attenuation settings intersect the volt-
age axis at nearly the same point.
Therefore, a control circuit for
temperature invariant attenuation
can consist of a voltage source and a
series resistor. Figure 10 shows a
proposed simple variable attenuator
circuit which will provide a tempera-
ture invariant attenuation. Here, V
opt
is the optimum open-circuit voltage
source of value given by Equation 7.
Different attenuation settings will be
achieved by switching or varying the
value of the resistor R.
This attenuator circuit has been
realized with different types of beam
lead PIN diodes available, e.g. Metal-
ics MPND-4005, Hewlett Packards
HPND-4005 and Infinions BXY-44K.
It has been verified that this pro-
posed circuit is applicable for all the
diodes.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the de-
scribed temperature dependent, for-
ward-biased PIN diode model is ac-
curate enough to analyze the temper-
ature behavior of the PIN diode
attenuator circuit. Using this temper-
ature dependent PIN diode model, a
simple bias circuit is proposed that
will provide a temperature invariant
attenuation. The proposed circuit
uses no separate temperature sensor
or compensating mechanism, but re-
sponds directly to the junction tem-
perature of the diodes. The junction
temperature of the PIN diode modi-
fies the diode current in such a way
that the RF resistance of the diode
remains invariant over the tempera-
ture. This prevents any errors caused
by temperature gradients, or by self-
heating of the diodes due to high RF
levels. It is also verified that this ap-
proach can be used for a wide range
of available diodes. I
References
1. J. Millman and C.C. Halkias, Integrated
Electronics, McGraw-Hill International
Editions, 1988.
2. Hewlett-Packard Application Note No.
922.
3. R.H. Caverly and G. Hiller, The Temper-
ature Dependence of PIN Diode Attenua-
tors, IEEE International Microwave Sym-
posium Digest, 1993, pp. 553556.
4. R.H. Caverly and G. Hiller, Temperature
Effect on PIN Diode Forward Bias Resis-
tance, Solid State Electronics, Vol. 38, No.
11, 1995, pp. 18791885.
S.C. Bera obtained his M.Tech. degree in radio
physics and electronics from the University of
Calcutta, India, in 1994. He joined the Space
Applications Centre of the Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO), Ahmedabad,
India, in 1994. Since then, he has been
involved in many communication payload
projects of ISRO, including INSAT-2, INSAT-3,
INSAT-4 and GSAT series of spacecraft.
R.V. Singh obtained his B.Tech. (EE) from the
GB Pant University of Ag. and Technology,
Pantnagar, Nainital, India, in 1972. He joined
the Experimental Satellite Communication
Earth Station (ESCES), Ahmedabad, India, in
1972, which later became part of the Space
Applications Centre (ISRO). He is currently
group director, Power Amplifier Group,
Satcom Payload Technology Area, Space
Applications Centre (ISRO).
V.K. Garg obtained his B.Tech. degree in
electronics and communications from IIT,
Madras, India, in 1970. He joined the
Experimental Satellite Communication Earth
Station (ESCES), Ahmedabad, India, in 1971.
Since then, he has been involved in all major
communications satellite projects of ISRO.
TECHNI CAL FEATURE