Low-noise GaAs field-effect transistor made by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract
Low-noise GaAs metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFET’s) have been made using molecular beam epitaxy. A noise figure of 1.47 dB with 9.9-dB associated gain has been achieved at 12 GHz, with a 0.6-μm gate length by 300-μm gate width FET device. These are the best results yet reported for low-noise molecular beam epitaxial (MBE) GaAs FET’s, and comparable to the best performance devices made with vapor phase epitaxy and ion implantation. Equivalent circuit elements have been evaluated in an effort to understand the critical parameters necessary to achieve these results.