Half-micrometer gate-length ion-implanted GaAs MESFET with 0.8-dBnoise figure at 16 GHz

Ion-implanted GaAs MESFETs with half-micrometer gate length have been fabricated on 3-in-diameter GaAs substrates. At 16 GHz, a minimum noise figure of 0.8 dB with an associated gain of 6.3 dB has been measured. This noise figure is believed to be the lowest ever reported for 0.5- and 0.25-μm ion-implanted MESFETs, and is comparable to that for 0.25-μm HEMTs at this frequency. By using the Fukui equation and the fitted equivalent circuit model, a K_f factor of 1.4 has been obtained. These results clearly demonstrate the potential of ion-implanted MESFET technology for K-band low-noise integrated circuit applications