Fabrication and characterization of field-plated buried-gate SiC MESFETs

Silicon carbide (SiC) MESFETs were fabricated using a standard SiC MESFET structure with the application of the "buried-channel" and field-plate (FP) techniques in the process. FPs combined with a buried-gate are shown to be favorable concerning output power density and power-added efficiency (PAE), due to higher breakdown voltage and decreased output conductance. A very high power density of 7.8 W/mm was measured on-wafer at 3 GHz for a two-finger 400-/spl mu/m gate periphery SiC MESFET. The PAE for this device was 70% at class AB bias. Two-tone measurements at 3 GHz /spl plusmn/ 100 kHz indicate an optimum FP length for high linearity operation.     

微波大功率SiC MESFET及MMIC

利用本实验室生长的4H-SiC外延材料开展了SiC MESFET和MMIC的工艺技术研究.研制的SiC MESFET采用栅场板结构,显示出优异的脉冲功率特性,20 mm栅宽器件在2 GHz脉冲输出功率达100 W.将四个20 mm栅宽的SiC MESFET芯片通过内匹配技术进行功率合成,合成器件的脉冲功率超过320 W,增益8.6 dB.在实现SiC衬底减薄和通孔技术的基础上,设计并研制了国内第一片SiC微波功率MMIC,在2～4 GHz频带内小信号增益大于10 dB,脉冲输出功率最大超过10 W.     

Q and V band power InGaAs MESFETs

Excellent power performance at 44 and 60 GHz demonstrated by 0.25 mu m gate InGaAs MESFETs is reported. From small-signal S-parameter measurements, these devices typically have extrinsic f/sub t/ greater than 100 GHz. At 1 dB compression point, a 150 mu m wide MESFET shows a power added efficiency of 33% with an output power of 60.8 mW (0.43 W/mm) at 44 GHz. For 200 mu m wide devices, the power added efficiency was measured to be 19% with an output power of 82 mW (0.41 W/mm) at 60 GHz. These results indicate that InGaAs MESFETs are viable millimetre-wave power devices.<>     

GaAs power MESFETs prepared by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition

GaAs power MESFETs have been developed by using MOCVD wafers. The saturation current of 7.2 mm-wide MESFET chips fabricated on a 6 cm2 wafer has been found to have a standard deviation of 6.8%, which is nearly a half of that observed for MESFETs fabricated on a conventional VPE wafer of the same size. The two-chip device with a gate width of 14.4 mm delivered 4 W at 7.8 GHz with 3 dB gain. The output power of 4 W at 7.8 GHz is the state-of-the-art performance of the GaAs power MESFETs prepared by the MOCVD technique.     

Submicron gate Si/sub 3/N/sub 4//AlGaN/GaN-metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistors

We present the characteristics of a quarter-micron gate metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistor (MISHFET) with Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ film as a gate insulator. A detailed comparison of the MISHFET and an identical geometry HFET shows them to have the same radio frequency (RF) power gain and cut-off frequency, while the MISHFET has much lower gate-leakage currents and higher RF powers at operating frequencies as high as 26 GHz. The MISHFET gate-leakage currents are well below 100 pA at gate bias values from -10 V to +8 V. At zero gate bias, the drain saturation current is about 0.9 A/mm and it increases to 1.2 A/mm at +8 V gate bias. The output RF power of around 6 W/mm at 40 drain bias was found to be frequency independent in the range of 2 to 26 GHz. This power is 3 dB higher than that from HFET of the same geometry. The intrinsic cutoff frequency is /spl sim/63 GHz for both the HFET and the MISHFET. This corresponds to an average effective electron velocity in the MISHFET channel of 9.9/spl times/10/sup 6/ cm/s. The knee voltage and current saturation mechanisms in submicron MISHFETs and heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFET) are also discussed.     

High-efficiency GaAs power MESFETs prepared by ion implantation

GaAs power MESFETs have been fabricated using ion implantation to form channel layers. A 1 ?m gate length by 2400 ?m gate width device has demonstrated an output power of 1.63 W with 6.9 dB associated gain, 35% power-added efficiency and 9.7 dB linear gain at 10 GHz. The transconductance of this device is 280 mS, which corresponds to 117 mS/mm. This result demonstrates that excellent GaAs power MESFETs can be made by ion implantation, and is comparable to average results demonstrated by devices made by AsCl3 vapour phase epitaxy.     

AlGaN-GaN HEMTs on Si with power density performance of 1.9 W/mm at 10 GHz

AlGaN-GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon substrate are fabricated. The device with a gate length of 0.3-/spl mu/m and a total gate periphery of 300 /spl mu/m, exhibits a maximum drain current density of 925 mA/mm at V/sub GS/=0 V and V/sub DS/=5 V with an extrinsic transconductance (g/sub m/) of about 250 mS/mm. At 10 GHz, an output power density of 1.9 W/mm associated to a power-added efficiency of 18% and a linear gain of 16 dB are achieved at a drain bias of 30 V. To our knowledge, these power results represent the highest output power density ever reported at this frequency on GaN HEMT grown on silicon substrates.     

High-power microwave GaN/AlGaN HEMTs on semi-insulating siliconcarbide substrates

Record performance of high-power GaN/Al_0.14-Ga_0.86 N high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) fabricated on semi-insulating (SI) 4H-SiC substrates is reported. Devices of 0.125-0.25 mm gate periphery show high CW power densities between 5.3 and 6.9 W/mm, with a typical power-added efficiency (PAE) of 35.4% and an associated gain of 9.2 dB at 10 GHz. High-electron mobility transistors with 1.5-mm gate widths (12×125 μm), measured on-wafer, exhibit a total output power of 3.9 W CW (2.6 W/mm) at 10 GHz with a PAE of 29% and an associated gain of 10 dB at the -2 dB compression point. A 3-mm HEMT, packaged with a hybrid matching circuit, demonstrated 9.1 W CW at 7.4 GHz with a PAE of 29.6% and a gain of 7.1 dB. These data represent the highest power density, total power, and associated gain demonstrated for a III-nitride HEMT under RF drive     

Record gain at 3.1 GHz of 4H-SiC high power RF MESFET

In this paper, a very high gain 4H-SiC power MESFET with incorporation of L-gate and source field plate (LSFP-MESFET) structures for high power and RF applications is proposed. The influence of L-gate and source field plate structures on saturation current, breakdown voltage (V_b) and small-signal characteristics of the LSFP-MESFET was studied by numerical device simulation. The optimized results showed that V_b of the LSFP-MESFET is 91% larger than that of the 4H-SiC conventional MESFET (C-MESFET), which meanwhile maintains almost 77% higher saturation drain current characteristics. The maximum output power densities of 21.8 and 5.5 W/mm are obtained for the LSFP-MESFET and C-MESFET, respectively, which means about 4 times larger output power for the proposed device. Also, the cut-off frequency (f_T) of 23.1 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) of 85.3 GHz for the 4H-SiC LSFP-MESFET are obtained compared to 9.4 and 36.2 GHz for that of the C-MESFET structure, respectively. The proposed LSFP-MESFET shows a new record maximum stable gain exceeding 22.7 dB at 3.1 GHz, which is 7.6 dB higher than that of the C-MESFET. To the best of our knowledge, this is 2.5 dB greater than the highest gain yet reported for SiC MESFETs, showing the potential of this device for high power RF applications.     

Microwave power double-heterojunction HEMT's

The RF and dc characteristics of microwave power double-heterojunction HEMt's (DH-HEMT's) with low doping density have been studied. Small-signal RF measurements indicated that the cutoff frequency and the maximum frequency of oscillation in DH-HEMT's with 0.8-1 µm gate length and 1.2 mm gate periphery are typically 11- 16 GHz and 36-41 GHz, respectively. However, the cutoff frequency in DH-HEMT's degrades strongly with increasing drain bias voltage. This may be caused by both effects of increasing effective transit length of electrons and decreasing average electron velocity, due to Gunn domain formation. In large-signal microwave measurement, the DH-HEMT (2.4 mm gate periphery) delivered a maximum output power of 1.05 W with 2.8 dB gain and 0.58 W with 1.6 dB gain at 20 and 30 GHz, respectively. These are the highest output powers yet reported for HEMT devices. For the dc characteristics, the onset of two-terminal gate breakdown voltage is found to correlate with the drain current Idssand recessed length, and three-terminal source-drain breakdown characteristics near pinchoff are limited by the gate-drain breakdown. A simple model on gate breakdown voltage in HEMT is also presented.     

High-power-density 4H-SiC RF MOSFETs

The authors have made the first 4H-SiC RF power MOSFETs with cutoff frequency up to 12 GHz, delivering RF power of 1.9 W/mm at 3 GHz. The transistors withstand 200 V drain voltage, are normally off, and show no gate lag, which is often encountered in SiC MESFETs. The measured devices have a single drain finger and a double gate finger, and a total gate width of 0.8 mm. To their knowledge, this is the first time that power densities above 1 W/mm at 3 GHz are reported for SiC MOSFETs.     

Noise performance of low power 0.25 micron gate ion implantedD-mode GaAs MESFET for wireless applications

We report on the noise performance of low power 0.25 μm gate ion implanted D-mode GaAs MESFETs suitable for wireless personal communication applications. The 0.25 μm×200 μm D-mode MESFET has a f_t of 18 GHz and f_max of 33 GHz at a power level of 1 mW (power density of 5 mW/mm). The noise characteristics at 4 GHz for the D-mode MESFET are F_min=0.65 dB and G_assoc =13 dB at 1 mW. These results demonstrate that the GaAs D-mode MESFET is also an excellent choice for low power personal communication applications     

30-GHz-band over 5-W power performance of short-channel AlGaN/GaN heterojunction FETs

This paper describes the small-signal characterization through delay-time analysis and high-power operation of the Ka-band of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors (FETs). An FET with a gatewidth of 100 /spl mu/m and a gate length of 0.09 /spl mu/m has exhibited a current gain cutoff frequency (f/sub T/) of 81 GHz, a maximum frequency of oscillation (fmax) of 187 GHz, and a maximum stable gain of 10.5 dB at 30 GHz (8.3 dB at 60 GHz). Delay-time analysis has demonstrated channel electron velocities of 1.50/spl times/10/sup 7/ to 1.75/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/s in a gate-length range of 0.09-0.25 /spl mu/m. State-of-the-art performance-saturated power of 5.8 W with a linear gain of 9.2 dB and a power-added efficiency of 43.2%-has been achieved at 30 GHz using a single chip having a gatewidth of 1.0 mm and a gate length of 0.25 /spl mu/m.     

A Ka-band power amplifier based on the traveling-wave power-dividing/combining slotted-waveguide circuit

An eight-device Ka-band solid-state power amplifier has been designed and fabricated using a traveling-wave power-dividing/combining technique. The low-profile slotted-waveguide structure employed in this design provides not only a high power-combining efficiency over a wide bandwidth, but also efficient heat sinking for the active devices. The measured maximum small-signal gain of the eight-device power amplifier is 19.4 dB at 34 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 3.2 GHz (f/sub L/=31.8 GHz, f/sub H/=35 GHz). The measured maximum output power at 1-dB compression (P/sub out/ at 1 dB) from the power amplifier is 33 dBm (/spl sim/2 W) at 32.2 GHz, with a power-combining efficiency of 80%. Furthermore, performance degradation of this power amplifier due to device failures has also been simulated and measured.     

90-nm CMOS for microwave power applications

We report, for the first time, the experimental evaluation of a very short channel 90-nm CMOS transistor under RF over-voltage conditions. At 9 GHz and 1.5 V supply a 40 /spl mu/m gate width device is able to deliver 370 mW/mm output power with a PAE of 42% and a transducer power gain of 15 dB. Measurement results at 3 and 6 GHz is also presented. The transistor does not show any degradation in either dc or RF performance after prolonged operation at 1 and 6 dB compression. Simulation show, that the peak voltage, V/sub ds/ at this condition is 3.0 V, while the maximum allowed dc supply voltage is limited by the design rules to 1.2 V. We show for the first time that nanometer-scale CMOS can be used for microwave power applications with severe RF over-voltage conditions without any observable degradation.     

Performance of the AlGaN HEMT structure with a gate extension

The microwave performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs at large drain bias is reported. The device structures were grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy on SiC substrates with a channel sheet resistance less than 280 ohms/square. The breakdown voltage of the HEMT was improved by the composite gate structure consisting of a 0.35 /spl mu/m long silicon nitride window with a 0.18 /spl mu/m long metal overhang on either side. This produced an metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) gate extension toward the drain with the insulator, silicon nitride, approximately 40-nm-thick. Transistors with a 150 /spl mu/m total gate width have demonstrated a continuous wave (CW) 10 GHz output power density and power added efficiency of 16.5 W/mm and 47%, respectively when operated at 60 V drain bias. Small-signal measurements yielded an f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ of 25.7 GHz and 48.8 GHz respectively. Maximum drain current was 1.3 A/mm at +4 V on the gate, with a knee voltage of /spl sim/5 V. This brief demonstrates that AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with an optimized gate structure can extend the device operation to higher drain biases yielding higher power levels and efficiencies than have previously been observed.     

4H-SiC MESFET's with 42 GHz fmax

We report for the first time the development of state-of-the-art SiC MESFETs on high-resistivity 4H-SiC substrates. 0.5 μm gate MESFETs in this material show a new record high f_max of 42 GHz and RF gain of 5.1 dB at 20 GHz. These devices also show simultaneously high drain current, and gate-drain breakdown voltage of 500 mA/mm, and 100 V, respectively showing their potential for RF power applications     

A new self-alignment technology for sub-quarter-micron-gate FETsoperating in the Ka-band

A self-alignment technology is proposed that allows fabrication of gates of less than 100 nm using conventional optical lithography. An offset gate structure is realized using this method. The technology is applied to high-power GaAs MESFETs consisting of many individual FETs. The uniformity of the FET characteristics is checked to show reproducibility. The input-output power characteristics of a MESFET with a 3.6-mm gate width were measured at 28 GHz. A linear gain of 4.0 dB and a saturation power of 0.8 W were obtained, demonstrating the overall effectiveness of this technology. It is shown that a 50-nm gate can be fabricated with this technology. A MESFET with a 90-nm gate length that was fabricated and evaluated at high frequency to demonstrate the technology is discussed     

AlGaN-GaN HEMTs on SiC with CW power performance of >4 W/mm and 23% PAE at 35 GHz

In this work, continuous wave Ka-band power performance of AlGaN-GaN high electron-mobility transistors grown on semi-insulating SiC substrates are reported. The devices, with gate lengths of 0.25 /spl mu/m, exhibited maximum drain current density of 1.1 A/mm and peak extrinsic transconductance of 285 mS/mm. At 35 GHz, an output power density of 4.13 W/mm with 23% of power-added efficiency (PAE) and 7.54 dB of linear gain were achieved at a drain bias of 30 V. These power results represent the best power density, PAE, and gain combination reported at this frequency. The drain bias dependence of the Ka-band power performance of these devices is also presented.     

12 W/mm AlGaN-GaN HFETs on silicon substrates

Al/sub 0.26/Ga/sub 0.74/N-GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on high-resistivity 100-mm Si (111) substrates. Van der Pauw sheet resistance of the two-dimensional electron gas was 300 /spl Omega//square with a standard deviation of 10 /spl Omega//square. Maximum drain current density of /spl sim/1 A/mm was achieved with a three-terminal breakdown voltage of /spl sim/200 V. The cutoff frequency and maximum frequency of oscillation were 18 and 31 GHz, respectively, for 0.7-/spl mu/m gate-length devices. When biased at 50 V, a 2.14-GHz continuous wave power density of 12 W/mm was achieved with associated large-signal gain of 15.3 dB and a power-added efficiency of 52.7%. This is the highest power density ever reported from a GaN-based device grown on a silicon substrate, and is competitive with the best results obtained from conventional device designs on any substrate.