P. Chin

High performance, high yield InP DHBT production process for 40 Gbps applications

High-speed digital logic is essential in diverse applications such as optical communication, frequency synthesizers, and analog-digital conversion. Current research efforts indicate that technologies utilizing heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are the preferred approach for systems operating at clock frequencies of 40 GHz and above. This need for higher performance electronics for space and defense applications has driven the development of InP HBTs at TRW. Consistent and continuous improvements from the baseline MBE structure and process technology have enhanced frequency performance, breakdown voltage, producibility, yield, reliability such that InP HBTs are being used successfully for many commercial, space, and defense applications. This paper describes our optimized high-yield production InP DHBT process which simultaneously combines f/sub T/>170 GHz, f/sub max/>190 GHz, and breakdown voltage /spl sim/7 V.

A 0.5 watt-40% PAE InP double heterojunction bipolar transistor K-band MMIC power amplifier

We report on the first InP DHBT K-band fully integrated power amplifier which achieves 0.5 Watts of output power and 40% power added efficiency (PAE). The power DHBTs obtain a BVceo >18 V and an f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ of 80 GHz and 160 GHz, respectively. The MMIC amplifier combines eight 1.5/spl times/30 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ emitter fingers for a total periphery of 360 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. At 21 GHz the MMIC power amplifier achieves a linear gain of 9.4 dB, output power of 27 dBm with a 40% PAE. The amplifier was operated under a Vce=5.5V and Jc=54 KA/cm/sup 2/ and obtained a corresponding power density of 1.4 mW//spl mu/m/sup 2/. To our knowledge this is the highest output power obtained for a fully monolithic-50-/spl Omega/-matched MMIC power amplifier based on InP HBT technology.

High Performance and High Reliability of 0.1 /spl mu/m InP HEMT MMIC Technology on 100 mm InP Substrates

Uniform millimeter wave 0.1 mum InP HEMT MMICs (Ka-band, Q-band, W-band, and distributed amplifiers) on 100 mm InP substrates have been demonstrated. Moreover, high performance and high reliability have been achieved. The results indicate that the readiness of 100 mm InP HEMT technology for insertion to support military/space applications.

First demonstration of monolithic InP-based HBT amplifier with PNP active load

An InP-based integrated HBT amplifier with PNP active load was demonstrated for the first time using complementary HBT technology (CRBT). Selective molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) regrowth was employed and a merged processing technology was developed for the monolithic integration of InP-based NPN and PNP HBTs on the same chip. The availability of PNP devices allowed design of high gain amplifiers with low power supply voltage. The measured amplifier with PNP HBT active load achieved a voltage gain of 100 with a power supply (V/sub CC/) of 1.5 V. The corresponding voltage swing was 0.9 V to 0.2 V. The amplifier also demonstrated S/sub 21/ of 7.8 dB with an associated S/sub 11/ and S/sub 22/ of -9.5 dB and -8.1 dB, respectively, at 10 GHz.

Gate Sinking Effect of 0. 1 μm InP HEMT MMICs Using Pt/Ti/Pt/Au

Gate sinking effect of 0.1 mum InAlAs/InGaAs/InP HEMT MMICs (with Pt/Ti/Pt/Au gate metals) subjected to elevated temperature lifetests has been investigated. The results show that Pt sinking is the dominant degradation mechanism caused by Pt diffusing into the In0.52Al0.4As Schottky barrier layer. Pt sinking explains the observed evolutions of Schottky diodes, Ids-Gm transfer characteristics, and the S21 increase. Scanning-transmission-electron-microscope micrographs substantiate the alleviation of Schottky junction degradation of InP HEMTs using Pt/Ti/Pt/Au gates. Moreover, 2-temperature lifetest shows that the activation energy is approximately 1.55 eV, based on a failure criterion of DeltaIDSS = -20%. The results from this study demonstrate that Pt sinking is the primary degradation mechanism of 0.1 mum InP HEMT MMICs with Pt/Ti/Pt/Au gate metals

Production InP MMICs for low cost, high performance applications

We report the progress of production InP MMICs for low cost, high performance applications at Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST). Both InP HEMT and HBT technologies are being developed on 100 mm diameter InP substrates and this development is leading to lower costs that will rival both GaAs-based MMICs including GaAs-based metamorphic technologies with superior performance. Two specific InP niche product areas will be discussed-high linearity InP HBT power amplifiers and high frequency W-band low noise amplifiers

A Ka-band monolithic low phase noise coplanar waveguide oscillator using InAlAs/InGaAs HBT☆

A Ka-band oscillator has been designed, fabricated and tested using InAlAs/InGaAs HBTs. Coplanar waveguide technology has been employed to improve the Q-factor of the circuit. An output power of 2.6 dBm with DC to RF conversion efficiency of 7.8% was measured at 31.7 GHz. Low phase noise of � 87 and � 112 dBc/Hz were achieved at an offset frequency of 100 kHz and 1 MHz respectively. These low phase noise values can be attributed to the low 1=f noise of the InAlAs/InGaAs HBT devices and the coplanar design used for the circuit. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technology and First Electrical Characteristics of Complementary NPN and PNP InAlAs/InGaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

A selective molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) regrowth approach is presented and applied in the demonstration of complementary InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology for monolithic integration of NPN and PNP HBTs. State-of-art performance has been observed: The DC gain was 35 for both integrated NPN and PNP HBTs. fT of 79.6 GHz and fmax of 109 GHz were achieved for NPN devices while fT of 11.6 GHz and fmax of 22.6 GHz were achieved for PNP devices. Little performance degradation has been observed compared with same design NPN or PNP HBT layers grown on individual substrates. Monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) based on complementary InP HBT technology have been studied for the first time using this technology and their electrical characteristics are presented.

CANTILEVERED BASE InP DHBT FOR HIGH SPEED DIGITAL APPLICATIONS

High speed digital logic is essential in diverse applications such as optical communication, frequency synthesizers, and analog-digital conversion. Current research efforts indicate that technologies utilizing heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) are the preferred approach for systems operating at clock frequencies of 40 GHz and above (1-6). In this paper we report a novel InAIAs/InGaAs/InP double-HBT (DHBT) with a cantilevered base layer and undercut collector. We fabricated and demonstrated an 80 GHz 2:1 digital frequency divider, and a 5 GHz 8-bit phase/7-bit magnitude Direct Digital Synthesizer (DDS) chip with approximately 3000 transistors using this technology.

InP HBT and HEMT technology and applications

The performance and cost advantages of gallium arsenide (GaAs) based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology has enabled several high volume commercial applications. TRW is currently delivering over 4 million MBE based GaAs HBT and HEMT integrated circuits per month for several commercial applications, as well as for high performance high reliability defense avionics, ground, and space applications. Indium phosphide (InP) based technologies have several enabling advantages over GaAs technologies for commercial communication applications, in particular for high efficiency mobile cellular, broadband millimeter wave point-to-point links, high speed fiber-optics, and satellite telecommunications.