High-voltage GaAs diodes with subnanosecond gate voltage recovery

High-voltage GaAs switching diodes with subnanosecond characteristic times of reverse current decay on switching from forward to reverse bias were studied. The diode structures studied had impurity concentration profiles in the base region close to those of the charge-storage diodes and operated in the regimes corresponding to those employed in silicon-based high-voltage fast-recovery drift diodes. The application prospects of the proposed GaAs diodes are demonstrated, for example, in the devices generating pulses with a front width of several hundred picoseconds, a current of several hundred amperes, and a voltage of a several kiloelectronvolts at a frequency of up to several hundred kilohertz.