Title :
A technique for improving the distortion of GaAs variable attenuator IC using squeezed-gate FET structure
Author :
Miyatsuji, K. ; Ishida, H. ; Fukui, T. ; Ueda, D.
Author_Institution :
Electron. Res. Lab., Matsushita Electron. Corp., Osaka, Japan
Abstract :
This paper describes a novel technique for improving the distortion of the GaAs attenuator IC using squeezed-gate structure of MESFETs. We found that the distortion originated from the steep cutoff Id-Vgs curve of conventional FETs. To obtain smooth cutoff characteristics, we devised the squeezed-gate structure where the FETs with different threshold voltages are connected in parallel making use of the short channel effect. Fabricated IC shows 10 dB reduction of the 3rd order intermodulation distortion by optimizing the ratio of the gate widths.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; MESFET integrated circuits; UHF integrated circuits; attenuators; cellular radio; gallium arsenide; intermodulation distortion; GaAs; UHF attenuators; distortion; gate width ratio; short channel effect; smooth cutoff characteristics; squeezed-gate FET structure; third order intermodulation distortion; threshold voltages; variable attenuator IC; Attenuators; Degradation; FET integrated circuits; Gallium arsenide; Insertion loss; Intermodulation distortion; Laboratories; MESFET integrated circuits; Microwave FETs; Threshold voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Monolithic Circuits Symposium, 1996. Digest of Papers., IEEE 1996
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3360-8
DOI :
10.1109/MCS.1996.506300