Hughes Electronics Corporation

Hughes Aircraft Company

Rosemount Aerospace Limited

Julia J Brown

Adele E Schmitz

Robert Y Loo

Daniel J Hyman

Juan F Lam

Brett Warneke

Jonathan James Lynch

Tsung-Yuan Hsu

Debabani Choudhury

James A Foschaar

Lawrence E Larson

Mehran Mehregany

Jar Jar Lee

Stan W Livingston

Peter M Asbeck

William E Stanchina

Darren E Atkinson

Madjid Hafizi

Jae Lee

A semiconductor passivation technique uses a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to produce a silicon-rich nitride film as a passivation layer on a Group III-V semiconductor device. The silicon-rich film has a nitrogen to silicon ratio of about 0.7, has a relatively high index of refraction of, for example, approximately 2.4, is compressively stressed, and is very low in hydrogen and oxygen content.

Passivation layer and process for semiconductor devices

Methods for the design and fabrication of micro-electro-mechanical switches are disclosed. Two different switch designs with three different switch fabrication techniques are presented for a total of six switch structures. Each switch has a multiple-layer armature with a suspended biasing electrode and a conducting transmission line affixed to the structural layer of the armature. A conducting dimple is connected to the conducting line to provide a reliable region of contact for the switch. The switch is fabricated using silicon nitride as the armature structural layer and silicon dioxide as the sacrificial layer supporting the armature during fabrication. Hydrofluoric acid is used to remove the silicon dioxide layer with post-processing in a critical point dryer to increase yield.

Fabrication of broadband surface-micromachined micro-electro-mechanical switches for microwave and millimeter-wave applications

A photodetector is fabricated in a multilayer structure having a semi-insulating InP substrate, an n&plus; InP contact layer overlying the InP substrate, an undoped InGaAs absorbing layer overlying the n&plus; InP contact layer, and a p&plus; doped InGaAs layer overlying the undoped InGaAs absorbing layer. A gold-beryllium p-contact dot is deposited onto the p&plus; doped InGaAs layer of the multilayer structure. A mesa structure is etched with a citric acid-based etchant into the multilayer structure. The mesa structure includes the metal p-contact dot, the p&plus; doped InGaAs layer, and the undoped InGaAs absorbing layer. The n&plus; InP contact layer is patterned, and a passive metallic n-contact layer is deposited onto the patterned n&plus; InP contact layer. A polyimide insulator layer overlying a portion of the structure is deposited and patterned, so that the polyimide insulator layer does not cover the passive metal p-contact dot and the metallic n-contact layer. The patterned organic polymer insulator layer is cured and the device is passivated by heating it in a nitrogen atmosphere. Thick metallic gold contract traces are deposited, with one trace extending to the gold-beryllium p-contact dot and the other trace extending to the metallic n-contact layer.

Method of fabricating a surface coupled InGaAs photodetector

A multiband millimeterwave antenna system for communicating signals in multiple frequency bands is disclosed. A main antenna body is connected to antenna extensions by micro-electro-mechanical switches. By opening and closing the switches, the length of the antenna can be altered. The antenna is coupled to a microstrip feed line by an aperture. A series of matching stubs match the impedance of the feed line for the various signal frequencies.

Multiband millimeterwave reconfigurable antenna using RF mem switches

Design and fabrication of broadband surface-micromachined

A reconfigurable filter system designed using micro-elecro-mechanical (MEM) switches is disclosed. The filter comprises a transmission line with one or more filter stubs coupled to the transmission line by MEM switches. The impedance of the filter system is altered by selectively opening and closing the MEM switches, which alters the filter characteristics of the filter system. Alternatively, the characteristics of the filter system are altered by using the MEM switches to selectively alter the length of filter stubs attached to the transmission line.

Reconfigurable millimeterwave filter using stubs and stub extensions

An integrated circuit technology combines heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and other components along with interconnect metallization on a single substrate. In a preferred embodiment a flat substrate is patterned, using dry etching, to provide one or more mesas in locations which will eventually support HEMTs. A device stack including HEMT and HBT layers is built up over the substrate by molecular beam epitaxy, with the active HEMT devices located on the mesas within openings in the HBT layer. In this way the active HEMT is aligned with the HBT layer to planarize the finished integrated circuit.

Method for making integrated heterojunction bipolar/high electron

A hybrid power transistor (40) includes a vertical PNP bipolar transistor (42) having a floating base (46). A junction-gate type field-effect transistor (FET) (62) has a lateral N-type channel (64,66) and a vertical electron injection path (54) from the channel (64,66) into the base (46) of the bipolar transistor (42). The FET channel current and thereby the electron injection current are controlled by the FET gate voltage. The injection current conductivity modulates the base (46) and thereby controls the collector current of the bipolar transistor (42). The FET (62) may have a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), junction-gate field-effect transistor (JFET) or metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) structure. The FET (62) does not require a gate insulating layer, enabling fabrication of the hybrid transistor (40) in the group III-V material system.

Hybrid bipolar/field-effect power transistor in group III-V material

Growing community of inventors

Santa Monica, CA, United States of America

Julia J Brown