In this paper, the small-and large-signal modeling of InP heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in transferred substrate (TS) technology is investigated. The small-signal equivalent circuit parameters for TS-HBTs in two-terminal and threeterminal configurations are determined by employing a direct parameter extraction methodology dedicated to III-V based HBTs. It is shown that the modeling of measured S-parameters can be improved in the millimeter-wave frequency range by augmenting the small-signal model with a description of AC current crowding. The extracted elements of the small-signal model structure are employed as a starting point for the extraction of a large-signal model. The developed large-signal model for the TS-HBTs accurately predicts the DC over temperature and small-signal performance over bias as well as the largesignal performance at millimeter-wave frequencies.
The paper presents millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signal sources using a hetero-integrated InP-on-BiCMOS semiconductor technology. Mm-wave signal sources feature fundamental frequency voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) in BiCMOS, which drive frequency multiplier–amplifier chains in transferred-substrate (TS) InP-DHBT technology, heterogeneously integrated on top of the BiCMOS wafer in a wafer-level bonding process. Both circuits are biased through a single set of bias pads and compact low-loss transitions from BiCMOS to InP circuits and vice versa have been developed, which allows seamless signal routing through both technologies exhibiting 0.5 dB insertion loss up to 200 GHz. One VCO operates at 82 GHz with a tuning range of 600 MHz and an output power of approximately 8 dBm. A frequency doubler combined with this VCO circuit delivers 0 dBm at 164 GHz and a frequency tripler with a similar VCO delivers −10 dBm at 246 GHz. Another hetero-integrated W-band doubler–amplifier circuit demonstrates 12.9 dBm saturated output power with 5.9 dB conversion gain at 96 GHz. A direct comparison of the TS InP-DHBT MMIC with either silicon or traditional AlN carrier substrates shows the favorable properties of the hetero-integrated process discussed here. The results demonstrate the feasibility of hetero-integrated circuits operating well above 100 GHz.
Applications such as radar imaging and wideband communications are driving the research on millimeter-wave circuits. For some applications SiGe hetero junction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are limited in output power. III-V technologies (like InP) can realize devices showing a high product of peak transit frequency multiplied with the open base breakdown voltage. Therefore, merging the qualities of both III-V and Si technology will enable a new class of high-performance ICs. Our approach combines an InP-DHBT transferred-substrate process with a Si-BiCMOS process. The key method is an aligned face-to-face wafer bonding with a subsequent removal of the InP substrate. Different integrated signal sources with an output frequency up to 246 GHz were designed and produced using different combinations of BiCMOS and InP circuit building blocks to demonstrate the capabilities of the hetero-integration routine. In this paper the influences of the wafer bonding and the finalization of the InP-DHBT process on SiGe devices were investigated. It was found that the influences on the BiCMOS devices were rather small.
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