Low-frequency noise characteristics of metamorphic In 0.52Al 0.48As/In 0.60Ga 0.40As double-heterostructure pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors grown on a GaAs substrate

Abstract

Low-frequency noise characteristics of metamorphic In 0.52Al 0.48As/In 0.60Ga 0.40As double-heterostructure pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (p-HEMTs) grown on a GaAs substrate are investigated. Low-frequency noise spectral density of the In 0.52Al 0.48As/In 0.60Ga 0.40As metamorphic HEMT (MM-HEMT) having two 0.5×50 μm 2 gates was measured for temperatures between 200 and 400 K and frequencies between 1 Hz and 53 kHz. Dependence of input noise spectral density on gate–source and drain–source bias voltages and transconductance frequency dispersion characteristics were also characterized. The low-frequency input noise spectra of the MM-HEMT showed pure 1/ f noise characteristics for the temperature and the frequency ranges investigated, indicating that there exists insignificant level of deep traps associated with the metamorphic epitaxial layer growth. The MM-HEMT showed a very low-noise spectral density (0.8×10 −13 V 2/Hz at 1 kHz) and the Hooge parameter (3.7×10 −5) that are comparable to those of the state-of-the-art In 0.52Al 0.48As/In 0.53Ga 0.47As HEMT grown on an InP substrate and an extremely small transconductance frequency dispersion ( Δg m/ g m0<1%). The results indicate a great potential of the In 0.52Al 0.48As/In 0.60Ga 0.40As MM-HEMT grown on a GaAs substrate for millimeter-wave circuit applications requiring low phase noise characteristics.