A novel high performance stacked LDD RF LDMOSFET

Abstract

A novel silicon RF lateral double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (LDMOSFET) structure, using a simple yet effective concept of stacked lightly doped drain (LDD), is proposed. The stacked layers of LDD minimizes the on-state resistance of the transistor due to the n+ doping used in the top LDD layer, and also raises the device breakdown voltage due to the charge compensation in the composite LDD region. Therefore, for the same blocking voltage rating, the stacked LDD structure allows the LDMOSFET to have a higher current handling capability. This in turn causes the transconductance Gm to be higher, leading to higher RF performance for the power device. Measured results show that a 67% improvement in I/sub dsat/ and a 16% improvement in forward blocking voltage are obtained. Furthermore, the new device achieves an increase in transconductance of 145% and improves cut-off frequency by 108% at a gate voltage of 10 V.