Abstract
The PIN diode should not be thought of as something physically different from the PN junction discussed in Chapter I, but rather different in a sense of degree. In Chapter I we saw that with the abrupt junction the width of the depletion zone is inversely proportional to the resistivity of the P or N region, whichever has the lesser impurity doping concentration. As the width of the depletion zone increases, the capacitance per unit area of the junction decreases. This effect is very beneficial for a diode which is intended for use as a microwave switch because the lower the capacitance the higher the impedance of the diode under reverse bias, and the more effective the device is as an “open circuit.”
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© 1982 Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
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White, J.F. (1982). PIN Diodes and the Theory of Microwave Operaton. In: Microwave Semiconductor Engineering. Electrical/Computer Science and Engineering Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7065-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7065-9_2
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