Materials and Device Characteristics of InAlAs/InGaAs HEMTs

High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on the InAlAs/InGaAs heterostructure have been grown on InP by molecular beam epitaxy. At room temperature, typical sheet charge densities of 2.1–3.0×1012 cm−2 and Hall electron mobilities over 10000 cm2 /V-s are obtained. An electron mobility as high as 13000 cm2 /V-s is achieved with a pseudomorphic Iny Ga1−y As channel and a y value of 0.70.HEMTs with a T- or Γ-shaped gate and with gate lengths ranging from 0.1–0.25 urn have been fabricated. A record low noise figure of 0.7 dB with an associated gain of 8.6 dB at 62 GHz has been achieved with 0.1 μm Γ-gate devices, while T-gate devices exhibit a minimum noise figure of 1.2 dB with 7.2 dB associated gain at 94 GHz. Separately, a record fmax value of 455 GHz was determined by extrapolating at -6 dB/octave from the measured gain of 13.6 dB at 95 GHz.Power HEMTs using a double heterojunction structure exhibit a record peak power-added efficiency (P.A.E.) of 49% with 8.6 dB power gain and 0.30 W/mm power density measured at 60 GHz. When biased and tuned for maximum output power, our best 60 GHz output power density to date is 0.52 W/mm with 33% P.A.E. and 5.9 dB power gain using a single heterojunction HEMT scheme with pseudomorphic channel. A similar device also yields peak P.A.E. of 26% with 0.20 W/mm power density and 4.9 dB gain at 94 GHz. These results represent the highest P.A.E.S and power gains ever reported for any transistor at these frequencies.