W‐Band MMIC chipset in 0.1‐μm mHEMT technology

Abstract

We developed a 0.1‐μm metamorphic high electron mobility transistor and fabricated a W‐band monolithic microwave integrated circuit chipset with our in‐house technology to verify the performance and usability of the developed technology. The DC characteristics were a drain current density of 747 mA/mm and a maximum transconductance of 1.354 S/mm; the RF characteristics were a cutoff frequency of 210 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 252 GHz. A frequency multiplier was developed to increase the frequency of the input signal. The fabricated multiplier showed high output values (more than 0 dBm) in the 94 GHz–108 GHz band and achieved excellent spurious suppression. A low‐noise amplifier (LNA) with a four‐stage single‐ended architecture using a common‐source stage was also developed. This LNA achieved a gain of 20 dB in a band between 83 GHz and 110 GHz and a noise figure lower than 3.8 dB with a frequency of 94 GHz. A W‐band image‐rejection mixer (IRM) with an external off‐chip coupler was also designed. The IRM provided a conversion gain of 13 dB–17 dB for RF frequencies of 80 GHz–110 GHz and image‐rejection ratios of 17 dB–19 dB for RF frequencies of 93 GHz–100 GHz.

Optimized recess etching criteria for T‐gate fabrication achieving ft = 290 GHz at Lg = 124 nm in metamorphic high electron mobility transistor with In0.7Ga0.3As channel

“…All references dealt with mHEMTs for channel In x range from 0.6 to 0.8. Firstly, we obtained a higher cut-off frequency of 290 GHz at longer gate length of 124 nm compared to the results of our previous work (f t = 210 GHz at L g = 100 nm [1]). Considering that recess etching was carried out properly for both devices, one of the main reasons for the difference in performance is epitaxial structure changed its channel in content from 0.6 to 0.7 and N cap from N cap = 1×10 19 cm −3 to N cap = 2×10 19 cm −3 .…”

“…Introduction: Metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (mHEMT) with InGaAs channel material based on GaAs substrate can be applied to monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with high frequency [1]. Compared to the competing InP-based InGaAs HEMT, the mHEMT exhibits relatively lower performance but is more cost-effective due to cheaper substrate price, the ability to fabricate on larger wafers, and ease of handling [2].…”

Optimized recess etching criteria for T-gate fabrication achieving ft= 290 GHz at Lg= 124 nm in metamorphic HEMT with In0.7Ga0.3As channel

“…All references dealt with mHEMTs for channel In x range from 0.6 to 0.8. Firstly, we obtained higher cut-off frequency of 290 GHz at longer gate length of 124 nm compared to the results of our previous work (f t = 210 GHz at L g = 100 nm, [2]). Considering that recess etching was carried out properly for both devices, the one of the main reasons for the difference in performance is epitaxial structure changed its channel In content from 0.6 to 0.7 and…”

“…Introduction: Metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (mHEMT) with InGaAs channel material based on GaAs substrate can be applied to monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with high frequency [1,2]. Compared to the competing InP-based InGaAs HEMT [3,4], the mHEMT exhibits relatively lower performance but is more cost-effective due to cheaper substrate price, the ability to fabricate on larger wafers, and ease of handling [5].…”

Analysis of issues in gate recess etching in the InAlAs/InGaAs HEMT manufacturing process

“…When a metamorphic buffer layer is applied to a GaAs substrate, an InP lattice-matched InAlAs/InGaAs epilayer can be grown to create a metamorphic HEMT (mHEMT) device. Results for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) using mHEMT devices have been reported [2,3].…”