Improvement on the noise performance of InAs-based HEMTs with gate sinking technology

Improvement on the RF and noise performance for 80 nm InAs/In _0.7Ga_0.3As high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) through gate sinking technology is presented. After gate sinking at 250 °C for 3 min, the device exhibited a high transconductance of 1900 mS/mm at a drain bias of 0.5 V with 1066 mA/mm drain-source saturation current. A current-gain cutoff frequency (f_T) of 113 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) of 110 GHz were achieved at extremely low drain bias of 0.1 V. The 0.08 × 40 μm² device with gate sinking demonstrated 0.82 dB minimum noise figure and 14 dB associated gain at 17 GHz with only 1.14 mW DC power consumption. Significant improvement in RF and noise performance was mainly attributed to the reduction of gate-to-channel distance together with the parasitic source resistance through gate sinking technology.