Pasternack Blog

The Schottky diode, named after German physicist Walter H. Schottky, is a semiconductor diode formed by the junction of a semiconductor with a metal. It has a low forward voltage drop and a very fast switching action.  Compared with the point contact diode used in similar applications, the zero bias Schottky diode has a wider ..

A radio frequency (RF) microwave detector, also known as RF power detector or RF responding detector, is a two-terminal device used to detect, and in some way, measure or convert an RF signal. As the receiving element, an RF detector is used in converting amplitude-modulated microwave signals to baseband (or video) signals in either a ..

With RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave systems, the component and system losses, along with frequency dependent gain and losses of devices and components, lead to uneven frequency versus gain slopes in many systems. This is often undesirable, especially in high precision sensing and test and measurement applications. For example, with wideband radar technologies, a precisely controlled ..

Is many applications, amplifiers are used to increase the strength of a signal, while minimizing the distortion and noise without sacrificing efficiency. However, with most receiver systems, and other applications, achieving the highest signal power isn’t the goal. As receivers circuits are typically highly sensitive to input power, and can be desensitized or damaged if ..

A Gunn diode, though very unlike other common semiconductor diodes, is a transferred electron device (TED) that presents a negative resistance after its threshold voltage is adequately exceeded. The controllable negative resistance properties of a Gunn Diode allows it to be used as a microwave oscillator, and these devices are often used in microwave communications, ..