Open AccessHigh linearity and high power performance with barrier layer of sandwich structure and Al0.05GaN back barrier for X-band application
Author(s) -
Bin Hou,
Ling Yang,
Minhan Mi,
Meng Zhang,
Chupeng Yi,
Mei Wu,
Qing Zhu,
Yang Lu,
Jiejie Zhu,
Xiaowei Zhou,
Ling Lv,
Xiaohua Ma,
Yue Hao
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. d, applied physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.857
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1361-6463
pISSN - 0022-3727
DOI - 10.1088/1361-6463/ab678f
Subject(s) - materials science , transconductance , barrier layer , optoelectronics , linearity , cutoff frequency , amplifier , high electron mobility transistor , cutoff , gallium nitride , layer (electronics) , voltage , electrical engineering , transistor , physics , composite material , cmos , quantum mechanics , engineering
The high power and linearity performance of GaN-based HEMT for X-band application was achieved using the barrier layer of sandwich structure and Al 0.05 GaN back barrier. The AlGaN-sandwich-barrier can modulate polarization-graded field for more flat transconductance profile under the high drain bias. Only about 7.5% current collapse (CC) occurs for drain quiescent bias of 40 V. Due to the Al 0.05 GaN back barrier, the three-terminal off-state breakdown voltage (BV DS ) of 260 V and a very small drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) of 2.7 mV V −1 is achieved. The AlGaN sandwich barrier combined with Al 0.05 GaN back barrier device exhibits a high current-gain cutoff frequency f T of 42 GHz@ V DS = 10 V, and a high power-gain cutoff frequency f MAX of 130 GHz@ V DS = 60 V. Load-pull measurement at 10 GHz revealed a saturated power density of 7.3 W mm −1 was achieved with an associated PAE of 29.2% and Gain of 10.6 dB. Two-tone measurement at 10 GHz showed an OIP3 of 38 dBm and a corresponding linearity figure-of-merit OIP3/ P DC of 4.5 dB. These results demonstrate the great potential of AlGaN-sandwich -barrier/GaN/Al 0.05 GaN HEMTs as a very promising alternative to high power and high linearity X-band power amplifier.