Review of semiconductor materials for monolithic microwave millimeter wave integrated circuits

Abstract

Field of wireless communication is advancing at a very rapid rate. Some the prominent applications are wireless personal area networks, local area networks, wide area networks, satellite communication, cellular based communication, and many more. All of these applications demand implementation of high performance active and passive circuits operating at high frequency. Each type of wireless systems demands different performance requirements for the constituent circuits and systems. As an example, in cellular communication there are different requirements for base station and mobile stations systems. Base stations demands high power transceivers and small size not matters whereas as mobile station transceivers should be portable, small sized and should have low power profile. Even in a single transceiver system in which transmitter and receiver are integrated on single chip, there are different requirements for transmitter and receiver sections. In transmitter section noise, interference rejection and band selectivity are more relaxed compared to receiver section, but linearity and power efficiency are issues of concern in transmitter section. Further at high frequencies, parasitic capacitance and lead inductance make the design of circuits and systems very complex and challenging. Features as small size, low cost and high performance make the monolithic microwave/millimeter wave integrated circuit (MMIC) a very suitable option for designing circuits and systems at high frequencies. One of the specific challenges in designing an MMIC for a specified system is selection of right device and right material as per the need of circuit and system requirements. This article attempts to review some of the prominent materials used for realizing MMIC along with their characteristics advantages, disadvantages with associated active device technologies and potential application areas.