High frequency noise in Schottky barrier diodes

Material selection and fabrication techniques are presented for constructing high frequency, millimeter wave, Schottky barrier diodes with a cutoff frequency of 1000GHz and a 4-5db conversion loss. The measured equivalent noise temperatures of these diodes and commercial Schottky barrier diodes at 300 K, and 18 K did not agree with the values predicted by the established shot noise theory. It was experimentally determined that the discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical noise temperatures was due to the fact that the established noise theory did not allow for thermionic-field emission or field emission as the barrier transport mechanism but considered only thermionic emission.