A Gunn diode uses GaAs which has a negative differential mobility,
i.
e., a decrease in carrier velocity with increase in electric field.
This effects is called transferred electron effect. The impedance of a Gunn diode is tens of ohms.
A Gunn diode oscillator has a resonant cavity, an arrangement to couple Gunn diode to cavity, biasing arrangement for Gunn diode and arrangement to couple RF power to load.
Applications of Gunn diode oscillator include continuous wave radar, pulsed radar and microwave receivers.
An Impatt diode has n+ - p - i - p + structure and is used with reverse bias.
It exhibits negative resistance and operates on the principle of avalanche breakdown. Impatt diode circuits are classified as broadly tunable circuit, low Q circuit and high Q circuit.
The impedance of Impatt diode is a few ohms. The word Impatt stands for Impact Avalanche Transit Time diode.
The features of Impatt diode oscillator are : Frequency 1 to 300 GHz, Power output (0.5 W to 5 W for single diode circuit and upto 40 W for combination of several diodes), efficiency about 20%.
Its applications include police radar systems, low power microwave transmitter etc.
