RF <i>p</i>-GaN HEMT With 0.9-dB Noise Figure and 12.8-dB Associated Gain for LNA Applications

Abstract

Low-noise amplification performance of an enhancement-mode p- GaN gate high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is thoroughly investigated. Featuring a tungsten (W) gate metal and CMOS-compatible metal contacts to source/drain terminals, the device exhibits a positive threshold voltage of 2.7 V. Low gate leakage current density ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{I}_{\text {G}}{)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 3.8 pA/mm and 16.3 nA/mm are extracted in pinch-off region and on-state region, respectively. The device delivers an input third-order interception point (IIP3) of 15.8 dBm at 2 GHz, together with good immunity of linearity characteristics against frequency change. A minimum noise figure ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$NF_{\text {min}}{)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 0.9 dB with an associated gain ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}_{\text {a}}{)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 12.8 dB are achieved at a working frequency of 2 GHz. Furthermore, an examination of the bias and frequency effects on NFmin and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}_{\text {a}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> reveals NFmin of 0.65 dB and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}_{\text {a}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 18.3 dB at 1 GHz. This work paves a solid path for the utilization of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${p}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -GaN HEMT for low noise amplifier applications.