Silicon-on-insulator m.o.s.f.e.t.s fabricated on laser-annealed polysilicon on SiO2

N-channel-enhancement and light-depletion-mode m.o.s.f.e.t.s have been fabricated on laser-annealed 0.5 ?m polysilicon films, deposited on 1 ?m of SiO2 grown on single-crystal silicon substrates. Threshold voltages of 0.35?0.45 V and ?0.5 ? ?0.7 V and surface mobilities of 170 cm2/Vs and 215 cm2/Vs were obtained on the enhancement and depletion devices, respectively. These results compare favourably with values realised in silicon-on-sapphire (s.o.s.) and bulk N-m.o.s. devices. In addition, the measured source-drain leakage currents match the best reported values for s.o.s. devices.     

Low-noise GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s with optimum noise figures of 1.6 dB at 6 GHz have been fabricated by projection photolithography. An equation has been developed for the calculation of optimum noise figure which gives good agreement between calculated and measured values.     

High-speed 1 ?m GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.

By minimising parasitic series resistances, a GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t. with 1 ?m gate length was fabricated, possessing the highest known r.f. power gain, measured up to 18 GHz, for GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s.     

Performance of GaAs power m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Power performance results at 4 GHz are summarised for GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s ranging in size from 4 to 16 mm gate periphery. A double-chip 16 mm unit operated at 24 V source-drain bias produced 13.5 W with 3 dB gain and 10.7 W with 8.1 dB gain. Although lack of perfect power and gain scaling is observed, the degradation in output power of the 16 mm devices was only 1 dB compared to the smaller devices.     

Avalanche noise in GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Instabilities in the d.c. characteristics of GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s for drain to source voltages greater than 4 V. believed to be due to reloading of traps in the interface between active layer and bulk material, or gunn-domain formation, seem to have their origin in avalanche breakdown of the back diode under the drain contact. Microplasma switching, vertical to the active layer, strongly modulates the drain current producing large broadband noise power.     

Substrate conduction in GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Substrate currents in a gateless GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t. have been measured at d.c, 0.9 MHz and 2 GHz. The results are consistent with the assumption of substrate conduction at high frequencies and active-layer conduction alone at low frequencies.     

High-efficiency GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t. amplifiers

High-efficiency c.w. amplification with GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s under class-B conditions has been demonstrated. Power added efficiencies as high as 68% at 4 GHz and 41% at 8 GHz have been achieved. Two-tone tests were carried out at 4 GHz. The power added efficiencies at the 3rd-order intermodulation levels of ?20, ?25 and ?30 dB were 49, 40 and 35% respectively.     

New n-channel m.o.s.f.e.t.s

By using plasma c.v.d. and lift-off, an n-channel m.o.s.f.e.t. with effective channel length of 0.4 ?m has been fabricated. Its main fabrication processes and obtained electrical characteristics are described.     

Dual-gate m.e.s.f.e.t. self-oscillating X-band mixers

GaAs dual-gate m.e.s.f.e.t.s have been successfully used as self-oscillating down-convertors in X-band. A single device replaces the preamplifier, mixer and local oscillator. The best conversion gain achieved by mixing from 10 GHz down to 1 GHz was 12 dB. The input (gate 1) to output (drain) port isolation amounted to 16 dB. Slug-tuner and `disc?-resonator circuits were tested and showed comparable gain and noise performance. Best d.s.b. noise figures of 5.5 dB could be realised at an i.f. of 1 GHz with an associated conversion gain of 4 dB.     

Modelling the m.e.s.f.e.t. output nonlinearity

Conditions governing the modelling of transductance and drain-conductance nonlinearities from measured data are investigated. A simple representation for regions close to pinch-off, corresponding to mixer operation, is obtained. Results of the modelling are compared to measurements on a typical 1 ?m gate length m.e.s.f.e.t.     

Two-dimensional electron gas m.e.s.f.e.t. structure

The first m.e.s.f.e.t. structure is reported in which the channel near pinch-off is occupied by a two-dimensional electron gas accumulated at the interface of a GaAs(N)-AlxGa1?xAs(N) heterojunction. Experimental data are in good agreement with theoretical calculations.     

High-yield self-alignment method for submicrometre GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

A high-yield self-alignment technique for submicrometer GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s is described. This method allows the production of submicrometre gate lengths and source-drain spacings by means of standard contact photolithography without requiring a particularly fine geometry on the masks. A 0.5 ?m long gate and a source-drain spacing of 2 ?m were obtained.     

Femtojoule logic circuit using normally-off GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Experimental results are reported on the speed/power performance of normally-off-type GaAs-m.e.s.f.e.t. logic circuits, using an integrated 15-stage ring oscillator as a test circuit. A power consumption as low as 1-5 ?W, corresponding to a power-delay product of 1.6 fJ, was obtained. Conversely, a propagation delay time of 650 ps was measured for a power consumption of 20 ?W per gate.     

GaAs gigabit logic circuits using normally-off m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Normally-off GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t. logic circuits fabricated by electron beam lithography have exhibited excellent high speed switching characteristics. The highest switching speed evaluated from a 15-stage ring oscillator is 30 ps per gate with a power dissipation of 1.9 mW. Binary frequency dividers have been fabricated with D-type flip-flops operating up to 3 GHz. A divide-by-eight counter has also operated at 2.5 GHz.     

Modelling of Gunn-domain effects in GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t. [S22] values larger than unity have been measured from 1 to 10 GHz in the region where the ID/VD curves display a negative slope. An explanation of this phenomenon is proposed in terms of Gunn-domain formation. An equivalent-circuit model which includes this effect is presented and discussed.     

Normally-off m.e.s.f.e.t. with fast switching behaviour

Normally-off m.c.s.f.e.t.s, fabricated on an insulating GaAs substrate with a vapour-phase-grown double layer (n?/n), showed a d.c. characteristic with a good saturation range and a switching response of 35 ps risetime.     

Conversion gain of m.e.s.f.e.t. drain mixers

A theoretical analysis of the gain properties of m.e.s.f.e.t. drain mixers is presented. The m.e.s.f.e.t. model includes the nonlinearity of both the transconductance and the drain resistance. For a special case, a simple analytical expression for the gain is given. Numerical results for a typical example are briefly presented as an illustration.     

Substrate dependence of InP m.e.s.f.e.t. performance

There is evidence to suggest that Fe outdiffuses, during the growth, into the epitaxial films prepared by vapour-phase epitaxy at 650°C. Field-effect transistors on Fe-doped material show substantial looping that was absent on Cr-doped material and exhibit about 2 dB worse noise figure at about 7 GHz. Experiments with low 1015 S-doped InP grown on Sn-, Cr- and Fe-doped substates indicate that such outdiffusion is typically about 5 ?m. Saturation velocity levels in the m.e.s.f.e.t. channel are about 1.7 × 107 cm/s and 1.3 × 107 cm/s, associated with Cr and Fe doped substrates, respectively.     

X and Ku band GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.

A GaAs Schottky-barrier f.e.t. (m.e.s.f.e.t.) with a 1 ?m gate has been built, which is suitable for X band and Ku band applications. The unilateral power gain over the X band is above 9 dB and the noise figure is only 5 dB at 10 GHz.     

Optimised doping profiles for speed-up of GaAs m.e.s.f.e.t.s

Simulation of m.e.s.f.e.t. logic cell shows that discharging of the gate depletion is significantly slower than the charging process. The transient response with the charging/discharging is analytically connected to arbitrary doping profiles. Specific profiles with a doping peak near the substrate boundary can reduce this discharging delay remarkably.