Texas Instruments Corporation

Bumman Kim

Hua Q Tserng

Hung-Dah Shih

Burhan Bayraktaroglu

Paul Saunier

William R Frensley

A heterostructure field effect transistor having a buffer layer comprising a first compound semiconductor material. A layer of second semiconductor material different from the first material is formed over the buffer layer. The second layer has a total thickness less than 250 .ANG.. A doped third semiconductor layer formed over the second layer. The net has a dopant concentration in the second layer is greater than the net dopant concentration in the third layer. A gate layer is positioned over the third layer. In a preferred embodiment the second layer is a pulse-doped pseudomorphic material. There is also provided a method for making the heterostructure field effect transistor. A doped pseudomorphic semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type is formed between first and second other semiconductor layers, the second layer including a net dopant concentration of the first conductivity type. A Schottky gate electrode is formed in contact with the second layer.

Method of forming heterostructure field effect transistor

A heterostructure field effect transistor having a buffer layer comprising a first compound semiconductor material. A layer of second semiconductor material different from the first material is formed over the buffer layer. The second layer has a total thickness less than 250 .ANG.. A doped third semiconductor layer formed over the second layer. The net has a dopant concentration in the second layer is greater than the net dopant concentration in the third layer. A gate layer is positioned over the third layer. In a preferred embodiment the second layer is a pulse-doped pseudeomorphic material. There is also provided a method for making the heterostructure field effect transistor. A doped pseudomorphic semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type is formed between first and second other semiconductor layers, the second layer including a net dopant concentration of the first conductivity type. A Schottky gate electrode is formed in contact with the second layer.

Heterostructure field effect transistor

Monolithic broadband semiconductor single-pole, double-throw switches are merged into distributed monolithic amplifiers and decrease the total semiconductor chip area occupied by the devices.

Broadband merged switch

The disclosure relates to a circuit to reduce the gate loss in a semiconductor travelling wave power amplifier using series capacitors on the gate feeding lines for a distributed amplifier design. The circuit arrangement significantly increases the gate width of the amplifier with a resultant increases of the broadband output power and efficiency.

Compensation of the gate loading loss for travelling wave power

Preferred embodiments include a microwave power MISFET (30) with a thin GaAS channel (54) bounded by an undoped Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As gate insulator (44) and a doped Al.sub.y Ga.sub.1-y As barrier (40). Under forward bias the channel (54) forms a quantum well which accumulates electrons and thereby increase maximum current and power handling without degrading breakdown voltage of the heterostructure MISFET An additional active layer (36) can be included on the other side of the barrier (40) to further increase power handling. Other embodiments include use of a strained layer In.sub.z Ga.sub.1-z As channel.

Power MISFET

A travelling-wave transistor structure (50) with the input and output transmission lines (54,58) terminated with unmatched impedances (70,72,74;80,82,84) to improve high-frequency response by reflection and phase shift to provide constructive interference is disclosed. Preferred embodiments include a .pi.-gate (52,56) MESFET structure travelling-wave transistor with many periodically spaced gate feeding fingers (56) connecting gate (52) to gate transmission line (54) which parallels gate (52). This provides a compact structure and has large advantages at millimeter wave frequencies. Source (60) may be grounded by vias (61) or may pass over gate transmission line (54) by air bridges to a ground on the same surface as the MESFET.

Travelling-wave microwave device

A metal-insulator-semiconductor field effect transistor using an undoped AlGaAs layer as an insulator over an n-type GaAs channel. The high breakdown field of the wide-bandgap AlGaAs results in a very high gate breakdown voltage and a low prebreakdown gate leakage current. The presence of the gate insulator also reduces the gate capacitance, Cgs. Moreover, the electron density in the channel is not all concentrated next to the heterojunction, which means that the series resistance of the channel is low, and also means that channel mobility will not be degraded by a less-than-perfect interface at the heterojunction.

Heterojunction device

Using the present invention, a gate for a MESFET may be fabricated having a minimum gate length while having a low resistance gate. In addition, the present invention provides a method for forming a gate and gate recess which are perfectly aligned which is the optimal structure for high frequency power MESFETs. A two layer masking layer is fabricated having a first layer which may be etched uniformly and a second layer of lithographic material which may be photolithographic material such as AZ resist. A gate opening is patterned in the photoresist material and a metal such as gold is deposited by evaporation from acute angles on opposite sides of the gate opening in the resist. The deposited metal serves as a mask which covers all but a very small portion of the opening in the photoresist. The silicon nitride layer is then etched to form a gate opening and gate recess. Gate contact metal is then deposited in the opening thus formed and the nitride, photoresist and gold layers are removed, lifting off a portion of the gate metal layer thus leaving a T-shaped gate which provides a minimum length at the channel gate interface and provides a low gate resistance.

Process for forming a T-shaped gate structure

A two-port monolithic microwave amplifier, which uses a distributed negative resistance diode with gain (such as an IMPATT diode) as an active element. The diode is tapered (increasing in width but not in thickness) so that, as the RF signal propagates along the diode, it sees a wider and wider active diode region. This diode is operated in the power-saturated region, so that, as the RF signal propagates along the diode, terminal voltage remains essentially constant, but the RF current increases. This configuration is inherently undirectional.

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

Bumman Kim