A K-band AlGaN/GaN HFET MMIC amplifier on sapphire using novel superlattice cap layer

Author

Nishijima, Masahiko ; Murata, Takafumi ; Hirose, Y. ; Hikita, Masayuki ; Negoro, Noboru ; Sakai, Hiroki ; Uemoto, Y. ; Inoue, Ken ; Tanaka, T. ; Ueda, Daisuke

Author_Institution

Semicond. Co., Matsushita Electr. Ind. Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan

fYear

2005

fDate

12-17 June 2005

Abstract

We have developed a K-band AlGaN/GaN HFET MMIC amplifier by applying an AlGaN/GaN superlattice (SL) capped structure on sapphire substrate. Owing to the lowest (0.4 Ω · mm) source resistance of AlGaN/GaN HFETs, the HFETs exhibited excellent DC and RF characteristics, and sufficient ability to operate in the K-band frequency range is obtained. The fabricated MMIC with a CPW-line structure exhibited a small-signal gain higher than 10 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 20-24.5 GHz and that of 13 dB at 21.6GHz when biased at a supply voltage of 7 V. The 1dB compression point (P_1dB) referred to output of 15.4 dBm at 21.6 GHz was obtained. This work is the first report of MMIC amplifier fabricated on sapphire successfully operating in the K band.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC amplifiers; aluminium compounds; coplanar waveguides; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; sapphire; semiconductor superlattices; 1 dB; 13 dB; 20 to 24.5 GHz; 3 dB; 7 V; AlGaN-GaN; AlGaN/GaN superlattice; CPW-line structure; DC characteristics; HFET MMIC amplifier; K-band frequency range; RF characteristics; compression point; coplanar waveguides; source resistance; superlattice cap layer; Aluminum gallium nitride; Bandwidth; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; K-band; MMICs; MODFETs; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Superlattices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2005 IEEE MTT-S International

ISSN

01490-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8845-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2005.1516585

Filename

1516585