Ultra-low noise characteristics of millimeter-wave high electron mobility transistors

1 October 1988

journal article
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Electron Device Letters

Vol. 9 (10) , 521-523
https://doi.org/10.1109/55.17831

Abstract

Room-temperature noise performance of high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) has been studied by correlating the microwave/millimeter-wave noise figure with lower frequency model parameters. By comparing devices fabricated from various molecular-beam epitaxially grown wafers, it is found that devices with high transconductance at low drain current generally exhibit superior noise performance. In particular, an optimal noise figure of 1.8 dB has been obtained at 60 GHz with 6.4-dB associated gain for devices from the best wafer. The low thermal noise coefficient ( theta <1) measured for these devices indicates a high carrier saturation velocity and negligible hot-electron effect.

Keywords

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:

High-performance Ka-band and V-band HEMT low-noise amplifiers
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 1988
Pulse-doped AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic MODFETs
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1988
Noise modeling and measurement techniques (HEMTs)
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 1988
Microwave performance of a quarter-micrometer gate low-noise pseudomorphic InGaAs/AlGaAs modulation-doped field effect transistor
IEEE Electron Device Letters, 1986
Noise parameters and light sensitivity of low-noise high-electron-mobility transistors at 300 and 12.5 K
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1986
A functional GaAs FET noise model
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1981
Optimal noise figure of microwave GaAs MESFET's
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1979
Thermal Noise in Field-Effect Transistors
Proceedings of the IRE, 1962