Ultra-low power microwave CHFET integrated circuit development

This report summarizes work on the development of ultra-low power microwave CHFET integrated circuit development. Power consumption of microwave circuits has been reduced by factors of 50--1,000 over commercially available circuits. Positive threshold field effect transistors (nJFETs and PHEMTs) have been used to design and fabricate microwave circuits with power levels of 1 milliwatt or less. 0.7 {micro}m gate nJFETs are suitable for both digital CHFET integrated circuits as well as low power microwave circuits. Both hybrid amplifiers and MMICs were demonstrated at the 1 mW level at 2.4 GHz. Advanced devices were also developed and characterized for even lower power levels. Amplifiers with 0.3 {micro}m JFETs were simulated with 8--10 dB gain down to power levels of 250 microwatts ({mu}W). However 0.25 {micro}m PHEMTs proved superior to the JFETs with amplifier gain of 8 dB at 217 MHz and 50 {mu}W power levels but they are not integrable with the digital CHFET technology.