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Millimeter-wave GaN-based HEMT development at ETH-Zürich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2010

Haifeng Sun ,
Diego Marti ,
Stefano Tirelli ,
Andreas R. Alt ,
Hansruedi Benedickter  and
C.R. Bolognesi
Haifeng Sun
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
Diego Marti
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
Stefano Tirelli
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
Andreas R. Alt
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
Hansruedi Benedickter
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
C.R. Bolognesi*
Affiliation:
Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group, ETH-Zürich – Gloriastrasse 35, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: +41 44 632 8775
*
Corresponding author: C.R. Bolognesi Email: colombo@ieee.org
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Abstract

We review the AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) activities in the Millimeter-Wave Electronics Group at ETH-Zürich. Our group's main thrust in the AlGaN/GaN arena is the extension of device bandwidth to higher frequency bands. We demonstrated surprising performances for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on high-resistivity (HR) silicon (111) substrates, and extended cutoff frequencies of 100 nm gate devices well into the millimeter (mm)-wave domain. Our results narrow the performance gap between GaN-on-SiC (or sapphire) and GaN-on-silicon and establish GaN-on-Si as a viable technology for low-cost mm-wave electronics. We here contrast the difference in behaviors observed in our laboratory between nominally identical devices built on high-resistivity silicon (HR-Si) and on sapphire substrates; we show high-speed devices with high-cutoff frequencies and breakdown voltages which combine fT,MAX × BV products as high as 5–10 THz V, and show AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with fT values exceeding 100 GHz on HR-Si. Although the bulk of our activities have so far focused on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on HR-Si, our process produces excellent device performances when applied to GaN HEMTs on SiC as well: 100 nm gate transistors with fT > 125 GHz have been realized at ETH-Zürich.

Keywords

AlGaN/GaNGaN-on-SiHEMTMillimeter-wave electronics
Type
Original Article
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 33 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2010

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References

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