Search

Semiconductor technology has seen rapid advances in recent years. Complementary?metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology is providing tremendous digital processing power by integrating billions of transistors. Indium phosphide (InP) has bridged the terahertz frequency barrier. Gallium nitride (GaN) is offering unprecedented solid-state RF power across the microwave spectrum. Diverse, accessible heterogeneous integration (DAHI) allows engineers to take advantage of all of these advances by combining them along with other semiconductor technologies onto a single chip. DAHI offers the ultimate in RF, mixedsignal, and digital capability for future mobile applications that will demand smaller size and weight with lower power and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter reports on two power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave-integrated circuits operating at W-band. The PAs use 250 nm InP HBTs and thin-film microstrip topology formed with benzocyclobutene dielectric. First PA utilizes a two-emitter finger HBT unit cell with each finger having emitter area of 0.25 \times 6~\mu \textm^2 . Second PA power combines two HBT unit cells. Both amplifiers are single stage and utilize conjugate matching at the input and optimum power load matching at the output. The first amplifier has demonstrated saturated output power of 12.4 dBm and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 41.7% at 93 GHz. This is the highest PAE number demonstrated at W-band. Second amplifier has demonstrated saturated output power of 15.6 dBm and PAE of 21.1% at 89 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report a heterogeneously integrated W-band downconverter, consisting of a low noise amplifier (LNA) and a star mixer. An LNA is realized in a 0.1- \mu \textm InP high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) technology and features the noise figure of ~2.5 dB and gain ≥25 dB at W-band. Star mixer is realized in four-layer interconnect InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and diode process. A novel design eliminates electrically large diode ring by utilizing a multimetal configuration. Mixer chiplet is integrated into the LNA carrier wafer using heterogeneous integration, which offers electrically short connection between two technologies. Heterogeneously integrated interconnect or transition has measured a loss of ~0.8 dB up to 96 GHz. Integrated W-band downconverter has measured the conversion gain ≥0 dB from 87 to 100 GHz. This is a first reported integration of InP HBT chiplets into the InP HEMT wafer using heterogeneous integration, as well as first reported a W-band heterogeneously integrated downconverter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]