Abstract: A microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) (40), includes a substrate (60), and an input bus (62), output bus (64), ground bus (66) and bias bus (68) formed as striplines of a four-line coplanar waveguide on the substrate (60) with the input bus (62) and output bus (64) disposed between the ground bus (66) and bias bus (68). A plurality of spatially distributed cascode amplifier units (43) are formed on the substrate (60), each including an input heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) (42) connected in a common-emitter configuration, and an output HBT (44) connected in a common-base configuration. The input HBT (42) has an emitter (E.sub.1) connected to the ground bus (66), a base (B.sub.1) connected to the input bus (62) and a collector (C.sub.1). The output HBT (44) has an emitter (E.sub.2) connected to the collector (C.sub.1) of the input HBT (42), a base (B.sub.2) connected to the bias bus (68) and a collector (C.sub.2) connected to the output bus (64).

Abstract: A two-terminal semiconductor diode device and method for manufacturing the same is disclosed. The semiconductor diode geometry is defined by mesa etching. An ohmic contact is disposed on the flat topped summit of the mesa and another ohmic contact in the shape of a ring is disposed on the bottom layer of the diode. A dielectric layer disposed over the diode has a via hole therethrough to make external contact to a metallic heat sink and ground. A substrate layer supports the semiconductor diode and has a second offset via hole therethrough to the ring contact for external circuit contact and biasing of the diode.The offset via hole simplifies the manufacturing process. Additionally, the active area of the diode makes direct contact to the heat sink improving heat transfer from the device.