Future developments for Terahertz Schottky barrier mixer diodes

With the steady improvement of whisker contacted GaAs Schottky barrier mixer diodes during the recent years, the frequency range for heterodyne detection has been extended towards frequencies as high as 2.5 THz. However, whisker contacted devices show reliability and handling problems, and space qualification is extremely difficult. Furthermore, whiskered diodes cannot be integrated. This paper shows future planar concepts suitable for THz heterodyne detection in order to overcome the above problems with whisker contacted diodes.