Improvement of AlGaN/GaN HEMT Noise Figure Using Thick Cu Metallization for Satellite Communication Applications

In this study, AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) with thick Cu metallization is investigated, and the Radio Frequency (RF) performance and the reliability are analyzed. By applying thick Cu metallization of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6.0 ~\mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Howie Tseng, Yueh-Chin Lin, Chieh Cheng, Po-Wei Chen, Heng-Tung Hsu, Yi-Fan Tsao, Edward Yi Chang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10478115/
Description
Summary:In this study, AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) with thick Cu metallization is investigated, and the Radio Frequency (RF) performance and the reliability are analyzed. By applying thick Cu metallization of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6.0 ~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> as interconnect, the cut-off frequency (fT), the maximum oscillation frequency (fmax), and the power performance can be improved. Besides, the thick-Cu-metallized device exhibits reduced minimum noise figure (NFmin) of 0.7, 1.0, 2.2 and 2.8 dB at 12, 14, 28 and 38 GHz, respectively, which can be attributed to the reduction of the source and drain resistance caused by thick Cu metallization. Furthermore, for stress test under high drain-to-source voltage (VDS) and high temperature, the proposed device exhibits good stability. The results show that the thick Cu metallization technology has great potential to be applied in satellite communication system.
ISSN:2168-6734