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

Author

Cui, Delong ; Pavlidis, Dimitris ; Hsu, Shawn S.H. ; Sawdai, Donald ; Chin, Patrick ; Block, Tom

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Volume

23

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

114

Lastpage

117

Abstract

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.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC amplifiers; bipolar MMIC; heterojunction bipolar transistors; indium compounds; low-power electronics; molecular beam epitaxial growth; 1.5 V; 10 GHz; InP; InP-based HBT MMIC; InP-based HBT amplifier; InP-based n-p-n HBTs; InP-based p-n-p HBTs; PNP active load; SHF; complementary HBT technology; high gain amplifiers; low power supply voltage; merged processing technology; monolithic HBT amplifier; monolithic integration; selective MBE regrowth; selective molecular beam epitaxial regrowth; Availability; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; High power amplifiers; Low voltage; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Monolithic integrated circuits; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; Power supplies; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.988809

Filename

988809