Carbon-doped base InP/InGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology for millimeter-wave application is presented. Ultra-high carbon doping of InGaAs layers lattice-matched to InP with hole concentrations in excess of 1 1020 /cm3 has been achieved using a chemical beam epitaxy (CBE). Heavily carbon-doped base InP/InGaAs HBT epi structures were grown and small area, self-aligned HBTs with 1.5 µm emitter finger width were fabricated using triple mesa etching and polyimide planarization techniques. The fabricated small area transistors showed a common-emitter current gain cut-off frequency (fT) as high as 200 GHz. Preliminary device reliability test results showed the potential of the heavily carbon-doped base InP/InGaAs HBT for high performance microwave and millimeter-wave applications. Applications of the InP/InGaAs single heterojunction bipolar transistor (SHBT) and double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) to a direct-coupled feedback amplifier and a power transistor, respectively, are presented.

Silicon-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) present an interesting option for low-cost consumer wireless systems. SiGe/Si heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are a major driving force behind Si-based MMICs, because they offer excellent microwave performance without aggressive lateral scaling. This article reviews opportunities for receiver frontend components (low-noise amplifiers and mixers) using SiGe HBTs.

A GSM900/DCS1800 dual-band AlGaAs/GaAs HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) power amplifier has been developed. It includes power amplifiers for GSM900 and DCS1800, constant voltage bias circuits and a d. c. switch. In order to achieve high efficiency, the outside-base/center-via-hole layout is applied to the final-stage HBT of the MMIC amplifier. The layout can realize uniform output load impedance and thermal distribution of each HBT finger. The developed MMIC amplifier could provided output power of 34.5 dBm and power-added efficiency of 53.4% for GSM900, and output power of 32.0 dBm and power-added efficiency of 41.8% for DCS1800.

Second harmonic signal feedback technique is applied to an HBT power amplifier for Wide-band CDMA (W-CDMA) mobile communication system to improve its linearity and efficiency. This paper describes the feedback effect of the 2nd harmonic signal from the output of the amplifier to the input on the 3rd order intermodulation distortion (IMD) products and Adjacent Channel leakage Power (ACP) of the power amplifier. The feedback amplifier, using an InGaP/GaAs HBT with 48 fingers of 3 20 µ m emitter, exhibits a 10 dB reduction in the level of the 3rd order IMD products. In addition, an ACP improvement of 7 dB for the QPSK modulation signal with a chip rate of 4.096 Mcps at 1.95 GHz was realized. As a result, the amplifier achieves a power-added efficiency of 41.5%, gain of 15.3 dB, and ACP of 43.0 dBc at a 5 MHz offset frequency and output power of 27.5 dBm. At the output power of 28 dBm, the power-added efficiency increases to 43.3% with an ACP of 40.8 dBc.

This paper describes amplification with improved linearity by employing a linearizing circuit in an input circuit of an internally-matched Ku-band high power amplifier. The linearizing circuit is composed of series L, C, R and an FET with grounded source and drain, and is connected between the input signal line and ground. This linearizing circuit was applied to a Ku-band 10 W output power amplifier utilizing a 25.2 mm gate-width double-doped Heterojunction FET. The power amplifier demonstrated a 8 dB reduction of the third-order intermodulation at about 6 dB output power backoff point from the 2 dB output compression point.

This report describes AlGaAs/GaAs HBT ICs for 20-Gb/s optical transmission, the preamplifier and optical modulator driver circuits, and those ICs for 10-Gb/s clock extraction circuits, the rectifier and phase shifter circuits. These ICs were fabricated using our developed hetero guard-ring fully self-aligned HBT (HG-FST) fabrication process. The Pt-Ti-Pt-Au multimetal system was also used as a base ohmic metal to reduce base contact resistance, and a high fmax of 105 GHz was obtained. Good results in the HBT IC microwave performances were achieved from the on-wafer measurements. The preamplifiers exhibited the broad bandwidth of 20. 9 GHz. The optical modulator driver performed a sufficiently large output-voltage swing of 4-VP-P at a 20-Gb/s data rate. The rectifier and the phase shifter circuits achieved good operations at 10-Gb/s. These results suggest that these HBT ICs can be applied to 20-Gb/s optical transmission and 10-Gb/s clock extraction systems.

Ultra-low-power-consumption and high-speed DCFL circuits have been fabricated by using 0.2-µm Y-shaped gate E/D-heterojunction-FETs (HJFETs) with a high-aspect-ratio gate-structure, which has an advantage of reducing the gate-fringing capacitance (Cf) to about a half of that of a conventional low-aspect-ratio one. A fabricated 51-stage ring oscillator with the 0.2-µm Y-shaped gate n-AlGaAs/i-InGaAs E/D-HJFETs shows the lowest power-delay product of 0.21 fJ with an unloaded propagation delay of 34.9 ps at a supply voltage (VDD) of 0.4 V. We also analyze the DCFL switching characteristics by taking into account the intrinsic gate-to-source capacitance (Cgsint) and the Cf. The analysis results for the power-delay products agree well with our experimental results. Our analysis also indicates the DCFL circuit with the high-aspect-ratio Y-shaped gate E/D-HJFETs can reduce the power-delay products by 35% or more below 0.25-µm gate-length as compared to conventional ones with the low-aspect-ratio Y-shaped gate HJFETs. These results clarify that the Cf-reduction of the Y-shaped gate HJFETs is more effective in improving the power-delay products than reducing the gate-length.

Optical frontend and distributed amplifier IC modules, both containing GaAs heterojunction-bipolar-transistors (HBT), have been developed for 40 Gb/s optical receiver. To achieve high-speed operations, the elements in the modules including the IC and signal lines, were designed to achieve a wider bandwidth with lower electrical reflection. The influence of a bonding-wire inductance was taken into particular account in optimizing the parameters of the ICs. The optical frontend, consisting of a waveguide pin-photodiode and an HBT preamplifier IC, exhibits a transimpedance gain of 43 dBΩ and a bandwidth of 31 GHz. The distributed amplifier IC module achieves a gain of 9 dB and a bandwidth of 39 GHz. A 40-Gb/s optical receiver constructed with these modules exhibited a high receiver sensitivity of -28. 2 dBm for a 40-Gb/s optical return-to-zero signal.

This paper describes design approach and power performance of a single 1. 5 V operation two-stage power amplifier MMIC for 2. 4 GHz wireless local area network applications. The MMIC with 0. 760. 96 mm2 area includes SrTiO3 (STO) capacitors with a high capacitance density of 8. 0 fF/µm2 and double-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction FETs with a shallow threshold voltage of -0. 24 V. Utilizing a series STO capacitor and a shunt inductor as an output matching circuit, the total chip size was reduced by 40% as compared with an MMIC utilizing SiNx capacitors. Under single 1.5 V operation, the developed MMIC delivered an output power of 110 mW (20.4 dBm) and a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 36.7% with an associated gain of 20.0 dB at 2.4 GHz. Even operated at a drain bias voltage of 0.8 V, the MMIC exhibited a high PAE of 31.0%.

A buried gate AlGaAs/InGaAs heterojunction FET (HJFET) with gate breakdown voltage of 30 V was examined for high drain bias (higher than 10 V) operation. High breakdown voltage was realized due to the optimization of the narrow recess depth. A 1.4 mm HJFET has exhibited an output power of 30.2 dBm (1050 mW) with 50% power added efficiency (PAE) and 12.1 dB linear gain at 12 GHz with a 13 V drain bias. An internal matching circuit for a 16.8 mm HJFET was designed using a large-signal load impedance determined from load-pull measurement. The 16.8 mm internally-matched HJFET has delivered 38.9 dBm (7.8 W) output power with 46% PAE and 11.6 dB linear gain at 12 GHz with a drain bias of 13 V. This is the first report of higher than 10 V operation of an X- and Ku-band power HJFET with the excellent power performance.

We present a high performance AlGaAs/GaAs power HBT with very low thermal resistance for digital cellular phones. Device structure with emitter air-bridge is utilized and device layout is optimized to reduce thermal resistance based on three-dimensional thermal flow analysis, and in spite of a rather thick substrate (100 µm), which achieved a low thermal resistance of 23/W for a multi-finger (440 µm240 fingers) HBT. This 40 finger HBT achieved power added efficiency (PAE) of over 53%, 29.1 dBm output power (Pout) and high associated gain (Ga) of 13.5 dB with 50 kHz adjacent channel leakage power (Padj) of less than -48 dBc under a 948 MHz π/4-shifted QPSK modulation with 3.4 V emitter-collector voltage. We also investigated the difference of RF performance between two bias modes (constant base voltage and current), and found which mode is adequate for each stage in several stage power amplifier for the first time.

A two-dimensional receiver OEIC array having an address selector for highly parallel interprocessor networks has been realized. The receiver OEIC array consists of two-dimensionally arranged 1616 (256) optical receiver cells with switching transistors, address selectors (decoders), and a comparator. Each optical receiver comprises a pin PD and a transimpedance-type HBT amplifier. The HBT has an InP passivation structure to suppress the emitter-size effect, which results in the improvement of current gains, especially at low collector current densities. The receiver OEIC array was fabricated on a 3-inch diameter InP substrate with pin/HBT integration technology. Due to the function of address selection, only one cell is activated and the other cells are mute, so the receiver OEIC array shows low crosstalk and low power consumption characteristics. The array also shows a 266-Mb/s data transmission capability. This receiver OEIC array is a most complex InP-based OEIC ever reported. The realization of the two-dimensional receiver OEIC array promises the future interprocessor networks with highly parallel optical interconnections.

A high speed and low power consumption SCFL circuit design with low supply voltage is proposed. Focusing on the relationship between logic swing and supply voltage, the lower limit for the supply voltage is presented. Theoretical analysis and circuit simulation indicates that the logic swing needs to be optimized to maintain high average gm within the swing. An SCFL D-FF fabricated using a 0.25 µm n-AlGaAs/i-InGaAs HJFET process operates at up to 10 Gbps with power consumption as low as 19 mW at a supply voltage of 1.3 V.

This paper describes 950 GHz power performance of double-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction field-effect transistors (HJFET) operated at a drain bias voltage ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 V. The developed 1.0 µm gatelength HJFET exhibited a maximum drain current (Imax) of 500 mA/mm, a transconductance (gm) of 300 mS/mm, and a gate-to-drain breakdown voltage of 11 V. Operated at 3.0 V, a 17.5 mm gate periphery HJFET showed 1.4 W Pout and -50.3 dBc adjacent channel leakage power at a 50 kHz off-carrier frequency from 950 MHz with 50% PAE. Harmonic balance simulations revealed that the flat gm characteristics of the HJFET with respect to gate bias voltage are effective to suppress intermodulation distortion under large signal operation. The developed HJFET has great potential for small-sized digital cellular power applications operated at a low DC supply voltage.

This paper describes small AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's for low-power and high-speed integrated circuits. The device fabrication is based on a new bridged base electrode technology that permits emitter width to be defined down to 1 µm. The new technology features oxygen-ion implantation for emitter-base junction isolation and zinc diffusion for extrinsic base formation. The oxygen-ion implanted emitter-base junction edge has been shown to provide a periphery recombination current much lower than that for the previous proton implanted edgs, the result being a much higher current gain particularly in small devices. The zinc diffusion offers high device yield and good uniformity in device characteristics even for a very thin (0.04 µm) base structure. An HBT with emitter dimensions of 12.4 µm2 yields an fT of 103 GHz and an fmax of 62 GHz, demonstrating that the new technology has a significant advantage in reducing the parasitic elements of small devices. Fabricated one-by-eight static frequency dividers and one-by-four/one-by-five two-modulus prescalers operate at frequencies over 10 GHz. The emitters of HBT's used in the divider are 12.4 µm2 in size, which is the smallest ever reported for AlGaAs/GaAs HBT IC's. These results indicate that the bridged base electrode technology is promising for developing a variety of high-speed HBT IC's.

We report the development of high-performance small-scale AlGaAs/GaAs collector-up heterojunction bipolar transistors (C-up HBT) with a carbon (C)-doped base layer. Oxygen-ion (O+) implantation is used to define their intrinsic emitter/base junctions and zinc (Zn)-diffusion is used to lower the resistivity of their O+-implanted extrinsic base layers. The highly resistive O+-implanted AlGaAs layer in the extrinsic emitter region sufficiently suppresses electron injection even under high-forward-bias conditions, allowing high collector current densities. The use of a C-doped base is especially effective for small-scale C-up HBT's because it suppresses the undesirable turn-on voltage shift caused by base dopant diffusion in the intrinsic area around the collector-mesa perimeter that occurs during the high-temperature Zn-diffusion process after implantation. Even in a small-scale trasistor with a 2 µm2 µm collector, a current gain of 15 is obtained. A microwave transistor with a 2 µm10 µm collector has a cutoff frequency fT of 68 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency fmax of 102 GHz. A small-scale C-up HBT with a 2 µm2 µm collector shows a higher fmax of 110 GHz due to reduced base/collector capacitance CBC and its fmax remains above 100 GHz, even at a low collector current of 1 mA. The CBC of this device is estimated to be as low as 2.2 fF. Current gain dependence on collector size is also investigated for C-up HBT's and it is found that the base recombination current around the collector-mesa perimeter reduces the current gain.

A software package has been developed for simulating complex silicon and heterostructure devices in 3D. Device geometries are input with a mouse-driven geometric modeler, thus simplifying the definition of complex 3D shapes. Single components of the device are assembled through boolean operations. Tetrahedra are used for grid generation, since any plane-faced geometry can be tessellated with tetrahedra, and point densities can be adapted locally. The use of a novel octree-like data structure leads to oriented grids where desirable. Bad angles that prevent the convergence of the control volume integration scheme are eliminated mostly through topological transformations, thus avoiding the insertion of many redundant grid points. The discretized drift-diffusion equations are solved with an iterative method, using either a decoupled (or Gummel) scheme, or a fully coupled Newton scheme. Alternatively, generated grids can be submitted to a Laplace solver in order to calculate wire capacitances and resistances. Several examples of results illustrate the flexibility and effectiveness of this approach.

This paper describes IC-oriented high-performance AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors that were fabricated to demonstrate their great potential in applications to high-speed integrated circuits. A collector structure of ballistic collection transistors with a launcher (LBCTs) shortens the intrinsic delay time of the transistors. A novel and simple self-aligned fabrication process, which features an base-metal-overlaid structure (BMO), reduces emitter- and base-resistances and collector capacitance. The combination of the thin-collector LBCT layer structure and the BMO self-alignment technology raises the average value of cutoff frequency, fT, to 160 GHz with a standard deviation as small as 4.3 GHz. By modifying collector thickness and using Pt/Ti/Pt/Au as the base ohmic contact metal in BMO-LBCTs, the maximum oscillation frequency, fmax, reaches 148 GHz with a 114 GHz fT. A 2:1 multiplexer with retiming D-type flip-flops (DFFs) at input/output stages fabricated on a wafer with the thin-collector LBCT structure operates at 19 Gbit/s. A monolithic preamplifier fabricated on the same wafer has a transimpedance of 52 dBΩ with a 3-dB-down bandwidth of 18.5 GHz and a gain S21 OF 21 dB with a 3-dB-down bandwidth of 19 GHz. Finally, a 40 Gbit/s selector IC and a 50 GHz dynamic frequency divider that were successfully fabricated using the 148-GHz fmax technologies are described.

We discuss delay times derived from the current gain cutoff frequency of a heterostructure field effect transistor and describe three types of novel channel structures for millimeter-wave InP-based HFETs. The first structure discussed is a lattice-matched InGaAs HEMT with high state-of-the art performance. The second structure is an InAs-inserted InGaAs HEMT which harnesses the superior transport properties of InAs. Fabricated devices show high electron mobility of 12,800 cm2/Vs and high transconductance over 1.4 S/mm for a 0.6-µm-gate length. The effective saturation velocity in the device derived from the current gain cutoff frequency in 3.0107 cm/s. The third one is an InGaAs/InP double-channel HFET that utilizes the superior transport properties of InP at a high electric field. Fabricated double-channel devices show kink-free characteristics, high carrier density of 4.51012 cm-2 and high transconductance of 1.3 S/mm for a 0.6-µm-gate length. The estimated effective saturation velocity in these devices is 4.2107 cm/s. Also included is a discussion of the current gain cutoff frequency of ultra-short channel devices.

This paper describes the performance of AlGaAs/GaAs HBT's developed for power applications. Their applicability to power amplifiers used in digital mobile radio communications is examined through measurement and numerical simulation, considering both power capability and linearity. Power HBT's with carbon-doped base layers showed DC current gains over 90. A linear gain of 19.2 dB, a maximum output RF power of 32.5 dBm, and a power added efficiency of 56 percent were obtained at 950 MHz. Numerical simulations showed that the power efficiency of HBT amplifiers could be improved by using harmonic trap circuits. Intermodulation measurements showed that third-order distortions were at most 21 dBc level at the 1-dB gain compression point. RF spectrum simulations using π/4 shift QPSK modulation showed that side-band spectrum generation was less than 45 dBc level at points 50 kHz off of the carrier frequency. These properties indicate that the power handling capabilities and linearity of HBT amplifiers offer promising potentials for digital mobile radio communications.