PIN diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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PIN diode

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A PIN diode is a diode with a wide, undoped intrinsic semiconductor

region between a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor
region. The p-type and n-type regions are typically heavily doped
because they are used for ohmic contacts.

Layers of a PIN diode

The wide intrinsic region is in contrast to an ordinary PN diode. The

wide intrinsic region makes the PIN diode an inferior rectifier (one typical function of a diode), but it makes the
PIN diode suitable for attenuators, fast switches, photodetectors, and high voltage power electronics
applications.

Contents
1 Operation
2 Characteristics
3 Applications
3.1 RF and microwave switches
3.2 RF and microwave variable attenuators
3.3 Limiters
3.4 Photodetector and photovoltaic cell
4 Example diodes
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Operation
A PIN diode operates under what is known as high-level injection. In other words, the intrinsic "i" region is
flooded with charge carriers from the "p" and "n" regions. Its function can be likened to filling up a water
bucket with a hole on the side. Once the water reaches the hole's level it will begin to pour out. Similarly, the
diode will conduct current once the flooded electrons and holes reach an equilibrium point, where the number of
electrons is equal to the number of holes in the intrinsic region. When the diode is forward biased, the injected
carrier concentration is typically several orders of magnitude higher than the intrinsic level carrier
concentration. Due to this high level injection, which in turn is due to the depletion process, the electric field
extends deeply (almost the entire length) into the region. This electric field helps in speeding up of the transport
of charge carriers from P to N region, which results in faster operation of the diode, making it a suitable device
for high frequency operations.

Characteristics

A PIN diode obeys the standard diode equation for low frequency signals. At higher frequencies, the diode
looks like an almost perfect (very linear, even for large signals) resistor. There is a lot of stored charge in the
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intrinsic region. At low frequencies, the charge can be removed and the diode turns off. At higher frequencies,
there is not enough time to remove the charge, so the diode never turns off. The PIN diode has a poor reverse
recovery time.

The high-frequency resistance is inversely proportional to the DC bias current through the diode. A PIN diode,
suitably biased, therefore acts as a variable resistor. This high-frequency resistance may vary over a wide range
(from 0.1 ohm to 10 k in some cases;[1] the useful range is smaller, though).
The wide intrinsic region also means the diode will have a low capacitance when reverse biased.

In a PIN diode, the depletion region exists almost completely within the intrinsic region. This depletion region
is much larger than in a PN diode, and almost constant-size, independent of the reverse bias applied to the
diode. This increases the volume where electron-hole pairs can be generated by an incident photon. Some
photodetector devices, such as PIN photodiodes and phototransistors (in which the base-collector junction is a
PIN diode), use a PIN junction in their construction.

The diode design has some design tradeoffs. Increasing the dimensions of the intrinsic region (and its stored
charge) allows the diode to look like a resistor at lower frequencies. It adversely affects the time needed to turn
off the diode and its shunt capacitance. PIN diodes will be tailored for a particular use.

Applications

PIN diodes are useful as RF switches, attenuators, photodetectors, and phase shifters.[2]

RF and microwave switches

Under zero or reverse bias, a PIN diode has a low capacitance. The low
capacitance will not pass much of an RF signal. Under a forward bias of
1 mA, a typical PIN diode will have an RF resistance of about 1 ohm,
making it a good RF conductor. Consequently, the PIN diode makes a
good RF switch.
Although RF relays can be used as switches, they switch very slowly
(on the order of 10 milliseconds). A PIN diode switch can switch much
more quickly (e.g., 1 microsecond).

The capacitance of an off discrete PIN diode might be 1 pF. At

A PIN Diode RF Microwave Switch.
320 MHz, the reactance of 1 pF is about -j500 ohms. As a series element
in a 50 ohm system, the off-state attenuation would be -20 times the
base 10 log of the ratio of the load impedance to the sum of load, diode and source impedances, or roughly
20 dB, which may not be adequate. In applications where higher isolation is needed, both shunt and series
elements may be used, with the shunt diodes biased in complementary fashion to the series elements. Adding
shunt elements effectively reduces the source and load impedances, reducing the impedance ratio and increasing
the off-state attenuation. However, in addition to the added complexity, the on-state attenuation is increased due
to the series resistance of the on-state blocking element and the capacitance of the off-state shunt elements.
PIN diode switches are used not only for signal selection, but they are also used for component selection. For
example, some low phase noise oscillators use PIN diodes to range-switch inductors.[3]

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RF and microwave variable attenuators

By changing the bias current through a PIN diode, it is possible to
quickly change the RF resistance.

At high frequencies, the PIN diode appears as a resistor whose

resistance is an inverse function of its forward current. Consequently,
PIN diode can be used in some variable attenuator designs as amplitude
modulators or output leveling circuits.

PIN diodes might be used, for example, as the bridge and shunt resistors
in a bridged-T attenuator. Another common approach is to use PIN
diodes as terminations connected to the 0 degree and -90 degree ports of
a quadrature hybrid. The signal to be attenuated is applied to the input
An RF Microwave PIN diode
port, and the attenuated result is taken from the isolation port. The
Attenuator.
advantages of this approach over the bridged-T and pi approaches are
(1) complementary PIN diode bias drives are not neededthe same bias
is applied to both diodesand (2) the loss in the attenuator equals the return loss of the terminations, which can
be varied over a very wide range.

Limiters

PIN diodes are sometimes used as input protection devices for high frequency test probes. If the input signal is
within range, the PIN diode has little impact as a small capacitance. If the signal is large, then the PIN diode
starts to conduct and becomes a resistor that shunts most of the signal to ground.

Photodetector and photovoltaic cell

The PIN photodiode was invented by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and his colleagues in 1950.

PIN photodiodes are used in fibre optic network cards and switches. As a photodetector, the PIN diode is
reverse biased. Under reverse bias, the diode ordinarily does not conduct (save a small dark current or Is
leakage). When a photon of sufficient energy enters the depletion region of the diode, it creates an electron, hole
pair. The reverse bias field sweeps the carriers out of the region creating a current. Some detectors can use
avalanche multiplication.
The same mechanism applies to the PIN structure, or p-i-n junction, of a solar cell. In this case, the advantage
of using a PIN structure over conventional semiconductor pn junction is the better long wavelength response
of the former. In case of long wavelength irradiation, photons penetrate deep into the cell. But only those
electron-hole pairs generated in and near the depletion region contribute to current generation. The depletion
region of a PIN structure extends across the intrinsic region, deep into the device. This wider depletion width
enables electron-hole pair generation deep within the device. This increases the quantum efficiency of the cell.

Commercially available PIN photodiodes have quantum efficiencies above 80-90% in the telecom wavelength
range (~1500 nm), and are typically made of germanium or InGaAs. They feature fast response times (higher
than their p-n counterparts), running into several tens of gigahertz,[4] making them ideal for high speed optical
telecommunication applications. Similarly, silicon p-i-n photodiodes[5] have even higher quantum efficiencies,
but can only detect wavelengths below the bandgap of silicon, i.e. ~1100 nm.

Typically, amorphous silicon thin-film cells use PIN structures. On the other hand, CdTe cells use NIP structure,
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a variation of the PIN structure. In a NIP structure, an intrinsic CdTe layer is sandwiched by n-doped CdS and
p-doped ZnTe. The photons are incident on the n-doped layer unlike a PIN diode.
A PIN photodiode can also detect X-ray and gamma ray photons.

Example diodes

SFH203 or BPW43 are cheap general purpose PIN diodes in 5 mm clear plastic case with bandwidth over
100 MHz. They are used in RONJA telecommunication systems and other circuitry applications.

See also

Step recovery diode

Optical interconnect
Light Peak
Interconnect bottleneck
Optical fiber cable
Optical communication
Parallel optical interface

References

1. Doherty, Bill, MicroNotes: PIN Diode Fundamentals (PDF), Watertown, MA: Microsemi Corp., MicroNote Series
701 (undated)
2. http://srmsc.org/pdf/004430p0.pdf (transcript version: http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents
/ABM_Bell/ABM_Ch8.htm)
3. About RF Switches (http://www.herley.com/index.cfm?act=app_notes&notes=switches) Herley General
Microwave
4. "Discovery semiconductor 40G InGaAs photodetector modules".
5. "Si photodiodes | Hamamatsu Photonics". www.hamamatsu.com. Retrieved 2015-09-27.

External links

The PIN Diode Designers' Handbook (http://www.ieee.li/pdf/pin_diode_handbook.pdf)

Skyworks PIN Diode RF limiter application note (http://www.skyworksinc.com/uploads/documents
/200480C.pdf)
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Categories: Diodes Microwave technology Optical diodes Power electronics
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