GaAs microwave power FET

A design consideration for an X-band GaAs power FET, features of the fabrication process, and electrical characteristics of the FET are described. Interdigitated 53 source and 52 drain electrodes and an overlaid gate electrode for connecting 104 Schottky gates in parallel have been introduced to achieve a 1.5-µm-long and 5200-µm-wide gate FET. A sheet grounding technique has been developed in order to minimize the common source lead inductance (L8= 50 pH). The resulting devices can produce 0.7-W and 1.6-W saturation output power at 10 GHz and 8 GHz, respectively. At 6 GHz, a linear gain of 7 dB, an output power of 0.85 W at 1-dB gain compression and 30-percent power added efficiency can be achieved. The intercept point for third-order intermodulation products is 37.5 dBm at 6.2 GHz.     

GaAs Dual-Gate FET for Operation Up to K-Band

A high-frequency equivalent circuit model of a GaAs dual-gate FET and analytical expressions for the input/output impedances, transconductance, unilateral gain, and stability factor are presented in this paper. It is found that the gain of a dual-gate FET is higher than that of a single-gate FET at low frequency, but it decreases faster as frequency increases because of the capacitive shunting effect of the second gate. A dual-gate power FET suitable for variable gain amplifier applications up to K-band has been developed. At 10 GHz, a I.2-mm gatewidth device has achieved an output power of 1.1 W with 10.5-dB gain and 31-percent power-added efficiency. At 20 GHz, the same device delivered an output power of 340 mW with 5.3-dB gain. At K-band, a dynamic gain control range of up to 45 dB was obtained with an insertion phase change of no more than +-2 degrees for the first 10 dB of gain control.     

A 30-GHz 1-W power HEMT

Millimeter-wave power high electron mobility transistors (HEMT's) employing a multiple-channel structure have been fabricated and evaluated in the R-band frequency range. An output power of 1.0 W (a saturated output power of 1.2 W) with 3.1-dB gain and 15.6-percent efficiency was achieved at 30 GHz with a 0.5-µm gate-length and 2.4-mm gate-periphery device. At 35 GHz, a 2.4-mm device delivered 0.8 W with 2.0-dB gain and 10.7-percent efficiency. These are the highest output power figures reported to date for single-chip power FET's in the 30-GHz frequency range.     

A microwave power double-heterojunction high electron mobility transistor

A microwave power high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) has been developed and tested in theK-band frequency range. The HEMT has a unique configuration of a selectively low-doped (AlGa)As/GaAs/(AlGa)As double heterojunction resulting in both capability of high-current density and high gate breakdown voltage. The structure showed electron mobility of 6800 cm²/V.s and two-dimensional (2-D) electron density as high as 1.2 × 10¹²cm^-2at room temperature. An output power of 660 mW (550 mW/mm) with 3.2-dB gain and 19.3-percent power added efficiency was achieved at 20 GHz with 1-µm gate length and 1.2-mm gate periphery. A similar device with 2.4-mm gate width produced an output power of 1 W with 3-dB gain and 15.5-percent efficiency. These results offer microwave high power capability in a double-heterojunction HEMT (DH-HEMT).     

InP depletion-mode microwave MISFET's

Depletion-mode aligned-gate InP MISFET's with gate lengths of 1.5-1 µm have given output power of 1.26-W/mm gate width and power-added efficiencies of up to 40 percent at 4 GHz. At 12 GHz, 0.75-W/mm gate width with 22-percent power-added efficiency was obtained. At 18 GHz, a power output of 331 mW (0.59 W/mm) with 3.1 dB of gain and 15.7-percent power-added efficiency was measured. An output power of 245 mW (0.44 W/mm) with 3-dB gain and 10.7-percent efficiency was obtained at 20 GHz.     

Microwave power GaAs MISFET's with undoped AlGaAs as an insulator

A metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor using an undoped AlGaAs layer as an insulator has been fabricated and RF tested. Due to the higher breakdown field of the wide-band-gap AlGaAs, the gate breakdown voltage has been greatly improved as compared with a conventional GaAs MESFET. The prebreakdown gate leakage current of this new device structure is also much lower than that of the MESFET. The presence of the gate insulator also reduces the gate capacitance. All these factors result in a GaAs power FET structure with potentials for high power, efficiency, and frequency of operation. An unoptimized 750-µm gate-width device achieved an output power of 630 mW with 7-dB gain and 37-percent power-added efficiency at 10 GHz. At reduced output power levels, power-added efficiency as high as 46-percent was obtained at X-band.     

A 20 GHz Band 0.5 W GaAs FET Amplifier for Satellite Communications

GaAs FET amplifier modules for 20 GHz band satellite communications have been developed using newly developed power FETs. The deep recess gate structure was adopted in the power FET, which improved both power output capability and power gain. Power added efficiency of 22 percent with more than 1 W power output has been achieved with 3 mm gate width FETs. The amplifier modules containing two-stage internally matched FET's can be hermetically sealed in metal packages. The modules had 8.4-8.9 dB linear gain in the 17.7-18.8 GHz band and 7.9-8.4 dB linear gain in the 18.5-19.6 GHz band. The power output at 1 dB gain compression point was more than 0.5 W. The third-order intermodulation distortion ratio was 81-83 dB at 18.2 GHz and 77-80 dB at 18.9 GHz, when individual output signal power was -4 dBm.     

A high-power GaAs FET having buried plated heat sink forhigh-performance MMIC's

This paper reports an FET structure, named “Advanced SIV FET” (advanced source island via-hole FET). The developed structure contains a selectively formed buried PHS (plated heat sink) instead of having thick backside gold metal. In this FET, the thickness of the substrate under the active layer, which produces heat during operation, is set to be 30 μm with a buried 70 μm thick gold plated heat sink for achieving low thermal resistance, and the thickness of other portion of the chip is set to be 100 μm for low loss in microstrip lines and sufficient mechanical strength. This FET structure has provided higher power output and power added efficiency with great simplicity of wafer and chip handling. The experimental results have shown that an FET, of 1350 μm gate width, has achieved a superior low thermal resistance of 16°C/W corresponding to a maximum channel temperature of 42.1°C. RF performances, at V_ds=7 V, show a power output as high as 27.9 dBm with a power added efficiency of 32% at the 1 dB power compression point and a linear gain of 8.3 dB all at 18 GHz. It also has achieved an excellent power density of 0.54 W/mm at V_ds=8 V. This structure has shown mechanical reliability which conforms to MIL-STD-883     

High-power GaAs FET's prepared by ion implantation

High-power GaAs FET's have been developed by using ion implantation to form channel layers and n⁺ohmic contact regions. The burn-out characteristics have been improved by introducing n⁺regions with high surface carrier concentration. The source-drain burnout voltage has been found to be more than 40 V. The distributions of saturated source-drain current (Idss) and RF output power of the devices have been found much more uniform than those of power GaAs FET's prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Multichip operation of the FET's has demonstrated an excellent power combining efficiency due to the good uniformity among the chips. The two-chip device (total gate width WG= 14.4 mm) has delivered 5 W at 10 GHz with 4-dB gain and 23-percent power added efficiency (ηadd). The four-chip device (WG= 28.8 mm) has given 10 W at 8 GHz (gain = 4.5 dB, ηadd= 23 percent). The four-chip device (WG= 48 mm) has developed 15 W at 5 GHz (gain = 8 dB, ηadd= 30 percent).     

High-efficiency 35-GHz GaAs MESFET's

Ka-band GaAs FET's with power output in excess of 200 mW and with efficiencies of more than 20 percent are described. Both ion-implanted and VPE-grown wafers were used. Deep UV (300-nm) lithography and chemical etching was employed to obtain a final gate length of 0.5 µm. These FET chips were flip-chip mounted and had a very low thermal resistance of 50°C/W for a total source periphery of 0.6 mm. At 35 GHz an output power of 220 mW with 21-percent efficiency at 3-dB gain was obtained from a 0.6-mm cell.     

10-GHz 10-W Internally Matched Flip-Chip GaAs Power FET's

A newly developed internally matched configuration for a flip-chip GaAs power field effect transistor is presented. In this structure, gate and drain electrodes of the FET chips are directly connected to the lumped dielectric capacitors in the matching networks by thermocompression bonding using no wire. A power output of 10 W with 3-dB gain and a power added efficiency as high as 14 percent has been realized at 10 GHz.     

高效率GaAs/InGaAsHFET功率放大器

研制成 Ga As/ In Ga As异质结功率 FET(HFET) ,该器件是在常规的高 -低 -高分布 Ga As MESFET的基础上 ,在有源层的尾部引入 i-In Ga As层。采用 HFET研制的两级 C波功率放大器 ,在 5 .0～ 5 .5 GHz带内 ,当Vds=5 .5 V时 ,输出功率大于 3 2 .3 1 d Bm(0 .1 77W/ mm ) ,功率增益大于 1 9.3 d B,功率附加效率 (PAE)大于3 8.7% ,PAE最大达到 49.4% ,该放大器在 Vds=9.0 V时 ,输出功率大于 3 6.65 d Bm(0 .48W/ mm) ,功率增益大于 2 1 .6d B,PAE典型值 3 5 %     

Dependence of GaAs power MESFET microwave performance on device and material parameters

The results of recent X-band measurements on GaAs Power FET's are described. These devices are fabricated with a simple planar process and at least 1-W output power at 9 GHz with 4-dB gain has been obtained from more than 25 slices having carrier concentrations in the range 5 to 15 × 10¹⁶cm^-3. The highest output powers observed to date are 1.0 W at 11 GHz and 3.6 W at 8 GHz with 4-dB gain. Devices have had up to 46-percent power-added efficiency at 8 GHz. The fabrication process is briefly described and the factors contributing to the high output powers reported here are discussed. Some of these factors are epitaxial carrier concentration near 8 × 10¹⁶cm^-3, good device heatsinking, and low parasitic resistance. The observed dependence of microwave performance on total gate width, gate length, pinchoff voltage, epitaxial doping level, etc., is described.     

3-mm double-heterojunction microwave power HEMT fabricated byselective RIE

Current-voltage and initial RF measurements are presented on a double-heterojunction HEMT (high-electron-mobility transistor) structure designed for power MMIC applications. The device structure is grown by molecular-beam epitaxy and uses a spatially variant superlattice to improve the performance of the inverted AlGaAs/GaAs interface. Gate recessing is achieved using a hybrid wet-chemical selective dry etching process. For selective dry etching, reactive ion etching with a >600:1 selectivity for GaAs over AlGaAs is used to control the recess depth. The room temperature DC characteristics for a 3-mm power FET (0.7- μm gate) display an I_dss of 370 mA/mm, a peak transconductance of 180 mS/mm, and a maximum gate-to-drain breakdown of 22 V. Large-signal microwave measurements at 5.5 GHz yielded a saturated output power of 1.3 W (31.2 dBm), 8.3-dB large-signal gain, and a peak power-added efficiency of 55%     

High-efficiency millimeter-wave GaAs/GaAlAs power HEMT's

The power, gain, and efficiency of 0.5-µm gate-length, 75- and 50-µm gate-width multiple heterojunction high electron mobility transistors (HEMT's) have been evaluated from 10 to 60 GHz. At 10 GHz, with a source-to-drain voltage as low as 2.4 V, the device delivers a power density of 0.37 W/mm with 13.4-dB gain and 60.8-percent efficiency. At 60 GHz, a 50-µm device gave 0.4 W/mm with 3.6-dB gain and 14-percent efficiency. The power density and efficiency of these 0.5- µm gate-length HEMT's above 40 GHz are the best reported for a three-terminal device. Fundamental frequency oscillations up to 104 GHz were observed when a device was bonded as a free-running oscillator.     

Millimeter-wave GaAs power FET with a pulse-doped InGaAs channel

Performance of a GaAs power MESFET has been improved significantly by incorporating a pulse-doped InGaAs layer in the GaAs n-channel. InGaAs provides electron transport properties superior to those of GaAs. The doping level of the GaAs layer can be very high, making it a very-high-transconductance device. Moreover, the conduction-band discontinuity at the heterointerface acts as a potential barrier for electron confinement; therefore, the power gain of the FET is significantly improved. The resulting device delivered a power density of 0.6 W/mm with 14% power-added efficiency and 3.5-dB gain at 60 GHz. At a gain of 5.1 dB, power density was 0.4 W/mm     

Ku波段10W功率PHEMT

报告了研制的 9.6mm栅宽双δ-掺杂功率 PHEMT,在 fo=1 1 .2 GHz、Vds=8.5 V时该器件输出功率3 7.2 8d Bm,功率增益 9.5 d B,功率附加效率 44.7% ,在 Vds=5～ 9V的范围内 ,该器件的功率附加效率均大于42 % ,两芯片合成 ,在 1 0 .5～ 1 1 .3 GHz范围内 ,输出功率大于 3 9.92 d Bm,最大功率达到 40 .3 7d Bm,功率增益大于 9.9d B,典型的功率附加效率 40 %。     

Design, fabrication, and characterization of monolithic microwave GaAs power FET amplifiers

The design, fabrication, and characterization of three- and four-stage monolithic GaAs power FET amplifiers are described. Each of the amplifier chips measures 1 mm × 4 mm. Procedures for characterizing these monolithic amplifiers are outlined. Output powers of up to 1 W with 27-dB gain were achieved with a four-stage design near 9 GHz. The circuit topologies used were flexible enough to allow external bondwires to be used as shunt inductors for amplifier operation at C- or S-bands. An output power of 2 W with 28-dB gain and 36.6-percent power-added efficiency was achieved at 3.5 GHz, using a modified four-stage amplifier.     

Power and linearity characteristics of GaN MISFETs on sapphire substrate

The improvement of device performance arising from the adoption of a MIS gate structure in GaN field-effect transistor (FET) is presented. GaN MISFET/MESFET devices were fabricated on sapphire substrate with and without the insertion of a thin SiN layer on device surface. The MISFET device showed improved device characteristic due to significant reduction in device gate leakage with respect to the standard MESFET structure. Measured power and linearity performance showed promising results. Under single-tone testing at 4 GHz, device yielded saturated output power 6.2 W/mm with 55% peak power added efficiency. When tested with two-tone signal device maintained a carrier to third order intermodulation ratio of 30 dBc up to power levels of 1.8 W/mm with 40% power added efficiency.     

Broad-Band Internal Matching of Microwave Power GaAs MESFET's

Broad-band internal matching techniques for high-power GaAS MESFET's at C band have been developed adopting novel circuit configurations and large-signal characterizations in the circuit design. The lumped-element two-section input matching network is formed on a single ceramic plate with a high dielectric constant. The semidistributed single-section output circuit is formed in microstrip pattern on an alumina plate. The internally matched GaAs FET with 11200-mu m total gate width developed has a 2.5-W power output at 1-dB gain compression and a 4.4-W saturated power output with 5.5-dB linear gain from 4.2 to 7.2 GHz without external matching. The FET internally matched from 4.5 to 6.5 GHz exhibited 5-W saturated power output with 6-dB linear gain.