RF Characteristics Research Articles

Device structural engineering and modelling of emerging III-nitride/β-Ga2O3 nano-HEMT for high-power and THz electronics

Abstract III-nitrides, such as gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminium nitride (AlN), possess a wide bandgap, a high breakdown voltage, and a high thermal conductivity, making them an attractive choice for high frequency and high-power applications. A further benefit of III-nitride-based HEMTs is their high current density, low noise figure, and higher electron mobility, which enable efficient radio-frequency signal amplification. In this research work, the polarization induced graded buffer technique and improved lattice matched β-Ga2O3 substrate is employed to minimize the buffer-related issues in III-Nitride Nano-HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors), such as reduction in the buffer leakage current losses. The polarization-induced doping in buffer region can considerably reduce the buffer leakage current, enhance breakdown voltage and RF characteristics, and bend the conduction band upwardly convex, improving two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confinement. A detailed comparison between the graded buffer technique of the HEMT and the HEMT having normal buffer has been conducted. The results demonstrated that the suggested HEMT demonstrated better DC and RF characteristics up to the Tera (1012) hertz range of frequencies. The improved characteristics of the proposed HEMT allow it to be a feasible solution for emerging technologies and cutting-edge communication systems that require efficient signal processing at very high frequencies.

A Nonlinear Model of RF Switch Device Based on Common Gate GaAs FETs

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a novel method for nonlinear modeling GaAs field‐effect transistors (FETs) in a common gate (CG) configuration, which is crucial for the effective design and thorough assessment of RF switch circuits. By focusing solely on a CG‐based GaAs FET for RF switch device characterization and modeling, the modeling process is streamlined compared to traditional methods that involve both CG and common source (CS) devices. The direct measurement of both DC and RF characteristics using the CG device enhances the accuracy of model parameter extraction. This approach ensures consistency in model and simulation applications as the CG topology aligns with devices commonly found in RF switch circuits. Moreover, to enhance predictive accuracy regarding the dispersion effect, an improved equation of drain‐source current has been incorporated. The empirical validation of the model reveals good agreements in terms of insertion loss, isolation, and output power performance for the CG GaAs FET device, including a wide band single‐pole double‐throw (SPDT) switch Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC).

TCAD‐enabled machine learning framework for DC and RF performance evaluation of InGaAs sub‐channel DG‐HEMTs

AbstractThis research presents a machine learning (ML)‐based model that determines the DC and RF characteristics of InGaAs sub‐channel double gate high electron mobility transistors (DG‐HEMTs) to optimize the device structure. We employ technology computer‐aided design (TCAD) simulations to analyze the DC and RF performance of InGaAs sub‐channel DG‐HEMTs, generating a range of datasets by varying the material composition, layer width, and thickness of different layers in the device structure. We then train and optimize support vector regression (SVR) models using 5‐fold cross‐validation, varying the kernel function and degree parameters, and achieve better performance with the radial basis function (RBF) kernel. The simulated results indicate that the ML model predicts physical parameters more effectively than experimental analysis, offering a compact modeling solution that requires fewer computing resources than traditional methods.

Improved DC and RF Characteristics of GaN-Based Double-Channel HEMTs by Ultra-Thin AlN Back Barrier Layer.

In order to improve the off-state and breakdown characteristics of double-channel GaN HEMTs, an ultra-thin barrier layer was chosen as the second barrier layer. The strongly polarized and ultra-thin AlN sub-barrier and the InAlN sub-barrier are great candidates. In this article, the two epitaxial structures, AlGaN/GaN/AlN/GaN (sub-AlN) HEMTs and AlGaN/GaN/InAlN/GaN (sub-InAlN) HEMTs, were compared to select a more suitable sub-barrier layer. Through TEM images of the InAlN barrier layer, the segregation of In components can be seen, which decreases the mobility of the second channel. Thus, the sub-AlN HEMTs have a higher output current density and transconductance than those of the sub-InAlN HEMTs. Because the high-quality AlN barrier layer shields the gate leakage current, a 294 V breakdown voltage was achieved by the sub-AlN HEMTs, which is higher than the 121 V of the sub-InAlN HEMTs. The current gain cut-off frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) of the sub-AlN HEMTs are higher than that of the sub-InAlN HEMTs from low to high bias voltage. The power-added efficiency (PAE) and output power density (Pout) of the sub-AlN HEMTs are 57% and 11.3 W/mm at 3.6 GHz and 50 V of drain voltage (Vd), respectively. For the sub-InAlN HEMTs, the PAE and Pout are 41.4% and 8.69 W/mm, because of the worse drain lag ratio. Thus, the Pout of the sub-AlN HEMTs is higher than that of the sub-InAlN HEMTs.

Gated-anode diodes for RF and microwave rectifiers for WPT applications: a simulation study on DC and RF characteristics

Gated-anode diodes for RF and microwave rectifiers for WPT applications: a simulation study on DC and RF characteristics

Improvement of DC Performance and RF Characteristics in GaN-Based HEMTs Using SiNx Stress-Engineering Technique.

In this work, the DC performance and RF characteristics of GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) using the SiNx stress-engineered technique were systematically investigated. It was observed that a significant reduction in the peak electric field and an increase in the effective barrier thickness in the devices with compressive SiNx passivation contributed to the suppression of Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling. As a result, the gate leakage decreased by more than an order of magnitude, and the breakdown voltage (BV) increased from 44 V to 84 V. Moreover, benefiting from enhanced gate control capability, the devices with compressive stress SiNx passivation showed improved peak transconductance from 315 mS/mm to 366 mS/mm, along with a higher cutoff frequency (ft) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) of 21.15 GHz and 35.66 GHz, respectively. Due to its enhanced frequency performance and improved pinch-off characteristics, the power performance of the devices with compressive stress SiNx passivation was markedly superior to that of the devices with stress-free SiNx passivation. These results confirm the substantial potential of the SiNx stress-engineered technique for high-frequency and high-output power applications, which are crucial for future communication systems.

RF Characterization of Ferroelectric MOS Capacitors

RF Characterization of Ferroelectric MOS Capacitors

Investigation of DC and RF Characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMT With Various Planar Distributed Channel Division

Investigation of DC and RF Characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMT With Various Planar Distributed Channel Division

Effects of co-60 gamma-ray irradiation on the DC and RF characteristics of SiGe HBTs

This study investigates the effects of Co-60 gamma-ray irradiation on the DC and RF characteristics of the SiGe HBTs, with a total dose of up to 4000 krad(Si). The degradation of the forward base current is primarily attributed to surface recombination due to the induced interface traps. The ideality factor of the forward excess base current is affected by the positive oxide-trapped charges at the interface of the emitter-base spacer oxide. TCAD simulation results indicate that the effective integral region of the surface recombination rate is associated with the positive oxide-trapped charge density. The accumulation of positive oxide-trapped charges in the shallow trench isolation oxide has an impact on the potentials of the interface and epi-collector region, subsequently affecting the base diffusion current. Therefore, the ideality factor of the reverse excess base current depends on the device geometry. The RF characterization suggests that the depletion capacitance of the base-emitter junction is more susceptible to gamma-ray irradiation compared to the base-collector junction. And the cut-off frequency experiences a slight degradation as the total dose increases.

Small Signal Parameters Extraction and RF Performance of GaN-Based Dual-Metal Cylindrical Surrounding Gate Junctionless Accumulation-Mode (DM-CSG-JAM) MOSFET

In this paper, small-signal model parameters and RF characteristics of the GaN-based Dual-Metal Cylindrical Surrounding Gate-Junctionless Accumulation Mode (DM-CSG-JAM) MOSFET has been extracted. Better scattering parameters has been observed for GaN-based DM-CSG-JAM MOSFET over other analogous structures which confirms its applications for RF domain. Also, enhanced drain current, transconductance, cut-off frequency, I on/I off ratio, etc. have been observed for the GaN-based device. The performance of the GaN-based MOSFET has also been compared with the other compound semiconductors (GaAs, InP) and silicon-based DM-CSG-JAM MOSFET. On account of the eminent properties possessed by GaN, the GaN-based device shows outstanding characteristics over the other semiconductor-based device.

Capacitance modeling, simulation and RF characterization of horizontal floating gate field effect transistor (H-FGFET) for gas sensing application

In this paper, physics-based capacitance model has been developed for horizontal floating gate field effect transistor (H-FGFET). The horizontal design of floating gate (FG) FET allows detection of large gas molecules like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2) etc. In order to validate the proposed model, the device has been designed using Sentaurus TCAD simulator and results have been validated with experimental data. Different electrical parameters such as transfer characteristics, switching ratio, output characteristics, threshold voltage, drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL), C-V characteristics, transconductance, output conductance and RF characteristics of the device have been analyzed at room temperature. The simulation result shows that increase in channel length of H-FGFET results in decreased leakage current, improved switching performance, increased gate capacitance and reduced DIBL. The comparative analysis of H-FGFET with previously reported floating gate FET structures reveal that proposed device offers highest switching ratio. The RF characteristics of H-FGFET illustrates that proposed device can operate efficiently as an amplifier for the frequency range of 0.1 GHz to 100 GHz. Further, the proposed device has also been tested for the detection of nitrogen dioxide gas and results reveal that with increase in operating temperature from 30 °C to 180 °C the leakage current of the device increases from 10−13 to 10−9 and OFF current sensitivity of the proposed sensor changes by 82% on changing the work function of sensing layer from 50 meV to 250 meV.

A multifunctional smart field-programmable radio frequency surface

Antennas that can operate across multiple communication standards have remained a challenge. To address these limitations, we propose a Field-Programmable Radio Frequency Surface (FPRFS), which is based on manipulating current flow on its surface to achieve desirable RF characteristics. In this work, we demonstrate that substantial enhancements in radiation efficiency can be achieved while preserving the high reconfigurability of antenna structures implemented on the FPRFS. This is accomplished by utilizing an asymmetric excitation, directing the excitation to the low-loss contiguous surface, and dynamically manipulating the imaged return current on a segmented ground plane by switches. This important insight allows for adaptable antenna performance that weakly depends on the number of RF switches or their loss. We experimentally validate that FPRFS antennas can achieve efficiencies comparable to traditionally implemented antenna counterparts. This permits the FPRFS to be effectively utilized as a productive antenna and impedance-matching network with real-time reconfigurability.

TCAD Simulation of Novel Recess Gate Common Drain Dual Channel AlGaN/GaN HEMT for Small Signal Performance

In this paper, DC and RF characteristics of Recess Gate Common Drain Dual Channel (CDDC) AlGaN/GaN HEMT have been investigated. The performance of the device in terms of the various figures of merits including gate-source capacitance, drain current, transconductance, and channel conductance has been studied for different recess depths. The threshold voltage is found to decrease by shifting right with increasing recess depth, even though with deeper recess, transconductance increases. It has also been observed that the device operates in enhancement mode with a minimum gate recess depth of 15 nm or more. With increasing recess depth, the drain current starts decreasing due to an increase in channel resistance. Use of recess technology with Al graded barrier layer enhances the performance in terms of gm, ft, and fmax which are 0.003 S, 23, and 46 GHz, respectively, but utilizing gate recess technology alone in CDDC HEMT further enhances device performance and the maximum gm, ft, and fmax are 0.0442 S, 28.43, and 59.21 GHz. The CDDC HEMT retain its advantage for specific applications including PA, LNA, and RF switch with optimized gate recess and graded barrier layer parameters.

Designing process and analysis of a new SOI-MESFET structure with enhanced DC and RF characteristics for high-frequency and high-power applications.

This research introduces a new designing process and analysis of an innovative Silicon-on-Insulator Metal-Semiconductor Field-Effect (SOI MESFET) structure that demonstrates improved DC and RF characteristics. The design incorporates several modifications to control and reduce the electric field concentration within the channel. These modifications include relocating the transistor channel to sub-regions near the source and drain, adjusting the position of the gate electrode closer to the source, introducing an aluminum layer beneath the channel, and integrating an oxide layer adjacent to the gate. The results show that the AlOx-MESFET configuration exhibits a remarkable increase of 128% in breakdown voltage and 156% in peak power. Furthermore, due to enhanced conductivity and a significant reduction in gate-drain capacitance, there is a notable improvement of 53% in the cut-off frequency and a 28% increase in the maximum oscillation frequency. Additionally, the current gain experiences a boost of 15%. The improved breakdown voltage and peak power make it suitable for applications requiring robust performance under high voltage and power conditions. The increased maximum oscillation frequency and cut-off frequency make it ideal for high-frequency applications where fast signal processing is crucial. Moreover, the enhanced current gain ensures efficient amplification of signals. The introduced SOI MESFET structure with its modifications offers significant improvements in various performance metrics. It provides high oscillation frequency, better breakdown voltage and good cut-off frequency, and current gain compared to the traditional designs. These enhancements make it a highly desirable choice for applications that demand high-frequency and high-power capabilities.

Deep Learning-Based Active Jamming Suppression for Radar Main Lobe

Due to the development of digital radio frequency memory (DRFM), active jamming against the main lobe of the radar has become mainstream in electronic warfare. The jamming infiltrates the radar receiver via the main lobe, covering up the target echo information. This greatly affects the detection, tracking, and localization of targets by radar. In this study, we consider jamming suppression based on the independence of RF features. First, two stacked sparse auto-encoders (SSAEs) are built to extract the RF characteristics and signal features carried out by the actual radar signal for subsequent jamming suppression. This method can effectively separate RF features from signal features, making the extracted RF features more efficient and accurate. Then, an SSAE-based jamming suppression auto-encoder (JSAE) is proposed; the mixed signal, including the radar signal, jamming signal, and noise, is input to JSAE for dimensionality reduction. Therefore, the radar signal and RF features, extracted by the two SSAEs in the previous step, are used to constrain the features of the reduced mixed signal. Moreover, we integrate the feature level and signal level to jointly achieve jamming suppression. The original radar signal is used to assist the radar signal reconstructed by the decoder. By first filtering out interference-related features and then reconstructing the signal, we can achieve better jamming suppression performance. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulating the actual collected data.

Improving RF characteristic and suppress gate leakage in normally-off GaN-HEMTs using negative polarization effect and floating gate for millimeter-wave systems

This article demonstrates the effect of reverse gradient barrier layer and floating gate structure on DC and RF performance of GaN-based HEMTs. In terms of power characteristics, using reverse gradient barrier and floating gate, the GaN-HEMTs with Lg of 240 nm and S-D spacing of 8.4 μm demonstrated the maximum drain current and peak transconductance are increased by 70 % and 15 % respectively, and the linearity of GaN based HEMT is greatly improved. Meanwhile, using the reverse gradient barrier layer, the gate leakage current is significantly reduced by nearly 1 to 5 orders of magnitude, and it is proved that the negative polarization effect has a certain effect on increasing the threshold voltage and breakdown voltage. In terms of RF characteristics, due to the existence of the floating gate, the parasitic capacitance is reduced and the frequency performance is improved. In addition, for both conventional and proposed HEMTs, this article proposes two equivalent capacitance models to optimize RF performance. As a result, the optimal structure offers approximately 10 and 7 times improvement in the current gain cutoff frequency (ft) and unilateral power gain cutoff frequency (fmax) (from 5.3 and 9.8 to 52 and 73.8 GHz, respectively). Additionally, the optimal structure exhibits outstanding scaling factors of 12.48 GHz·μm.

Investigation of Planar Antenna Performances on Commercially Available Dielectric Materials

Planar RF antennas with their conformal geometry, good RF performances and ease of construction find a wide range of applications ranging from mobile phones to RADAR and wearable electronic gadgets to medical implant devices. The selection of a suitable dielectric material is by far the most crucial step in the antenna design process to achieve the desired RF characteristics. The directivity, efficiency and bandwidth of an antenna depend on the substrate dielectric constant, loss tangent and material thickness. This paper investigates the RF performances of two planar antennas designed using two commercially available dielectric materials namely RT Duroid and FR4 with a full wave 3D EM simulation tool. The results show the superior RF characteristics of the antenna designed using RT Duroid over FR4. The antenna designed with RT Duroid substrate is fabricated and the measurement results obtained are found to be in good agreement with the simulation results.

Modeling of Schottky diode and optimal matching circuit design for low power RF energy harvesting

This work designs and implements a single-stage rectifier-based RF energy harvesting device. This device integrates a receiving antenna and a rectifying circuit to convert ambient electromagnetic energy into useful DC power efficiently. The rectenna is carefully engineered with an optimal matching circuit, achieving high efficiency with a return loss of less than −10 dB. The design uses a practical model of the Schottky diode, where both RF and DC characteristics are derived through extensive experimental measurements. The results from both experiments and simulations confirm the effectiveness of the design, showing its proficiency in efficient RF energy harvesting under low-power conditions. The antenna produced operates in the wifi band with a gain close to 4 dBi and a bandwidth of 100 MHz. With a load resistance of 1600 Ω, the proposed device achieves an impressive RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of approximately 52% at a low incident power of −5 dBm. These findings highlight the potential and reliability of rectenna systems for practical and efficient RF energy harvesting applications. The study significantly contributes to our understanding of rectenna-based energy harvesting, providing valuable insights for future design considerations and applications in low-power RF systems.

Cryogenic flip-chip interconnection for silicon qubit devices

Interfacing qubits with peripheral control circuitry poses one of the major common challenges toward realization of large-scale quantum computation. Spin qubits in silicon quantum dots (QDs)are particularly promising for scaling up, owing to the potential benefits from the know-how of the semiconductor industry. In this paper, we focus on the interposer technique as one of the potential solutions for the quantum–classical interface problem and report DC and RF characterization of a silicon QD device mounted on an interposer. We demonstrate flip-chip interconnection with the qubit device down to 4.2 K by observing Coulomb diamonds. We furthermore propose and demonstrate a laser-cut technique to disconnect peripheral circuits no longer in need. These results may pave the way toward system-on-a-chip quantum–classical integration for future quantum processors.

Impact of Graded AlGaN Buffer Layer Thickness on the DC, RF, Linearity, Intermodulation and Off-State Breakdown Characteristics of AlGaN Channel HEMT

This study examines the extraction of small-signal equivalent circuit parameters, linearity and intermodulation metrics, and capacitance–voltage characteristics for both AlGaN and GaN channel HEMTs. Compared to GaN channel HEMTs, AlGaN channel HEMTs have better linearity and intermodulation distortion. In the instance of AlGaN channel HEMTs, the device parasitics are decreased. Additionally, the effect of graded AlGaN buffer layer thickness on breakdown characteristics and linearity is examined. For breakdown characteristics, the 200 nm-graded AlGaN buffer layer thickness yields superior results with VBOff 157 V for a thickness of 200 nm (147 V in the case of 500 nm). At 200 nm thickness, the linearity and intermodulation distortion FOMs are also reasonably good, and the remaining device properties are essentially unchanged. Hence, the graded AlGaN buffer thickness can be reduced for high-voltage applications. For higher-voltage applications, the graded AlGaN buffer thickness can, therefore, be decreased.