THz Electronics for Data Centre Wireless Links - the TERAPOD Project

This paper presents an overview of the terahertz (THz) resonant tunneling diode (RTD) technology that will be used as one of the approaches towards wireless data centres as envisioned on the eU H2020 TERAPOD project. We show an example 480 gm × 680 gm THz source chip at 300 GHz employing a 4 gm × 4 gm RTD device with 0.15 mW output power. We also show a basic laboratory wireless setup with this device in which up to 2.5 Gbps (limited by equipment) was demonstrated

IV Characteristics of a Stabilized Resonant Tunnelling Diodes

The presence of parasitic oscillations found in the negative differential region (NDR), which can distort the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the device is one of the main problems when designing resonant tunnelling diode (RTD) circuits. A new method for RTD stabilization is proposed based on work done previously on tunnel diodes and results show that there is a significant difference between the I-V characteristics of a tunnel diode and that of an RTD. This work shows promising potential for further increasing the RTD’s output power, DC-RF conversion efficiency and provides the basis for an accurate model of the NDR regio

Compact J-band Oscillators with 1 mW RF Output Power and over 110 GHz Modulation Bandwidth

We report a compact resonant tunneling diode (RTD) oscillator with 1 mW output power at 260 GHz and a modulation bandwidth of over 110 GHz. The oscillator employs an RTD device size of 4 × 4 μm 2 resonating with an 88 μm long microstrip inductor. The total chip size is 470 × 530 μm 2. All fabrication was done using the low cost photolithography technique

AlGaN/GaN HEMT with Distributed Gate for Improved Thermal Performance

This paper reports a novel type of distributed gate (DG) HEMT fabricated using isolation by oxygen plasma. The technique results in planar devices with low gate leakage currents of only 1.3 μA/mm at -20 V gate voltage for devices with gate periphery of 1 mm. The DG-HEMT improves the thermal performance by reducing the current drop at higher drain voltages leading to higher output powers

Resonant tunnelling diode based high speed optoelectronic transmitters

Resonant tunneling diode (RTD) integration with photo detector (PD) from epi-layer design shows great potential for combining terahertz (THz) RTD electronic source with high speed optical modulation. With an optimized layer structure, the RTD-PD presented in the paper shows high stationary responsivity of 5 A/W at 1310 nm wavelength. High power microwave/mm-wave RTD-PD optoelectronic oscillators are proposed. The circuitry employs two RTD-PD devices in parallel. The oscillation frequencies range from 20-44 GHz with maximum attainable power about 1 mW at 34/37/44GHz.European Commission [645369

A planar distributed channel AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology

This brief presents AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices with improved thermal and dc current-voltage (I-V) performance using a novel method of obtaining a distributed channel device, i.e., the total semiconductor area between the ohmic contacts comprise conducting and nonconducting regions. A novel oxygen (O2) plasma treatment technique is used to realize the inactive or nonconducting regions. Multifinger devices with 1-mm gate periphery exhibit extremely low gate leakage currents below 0.2 μA/mm at a gate voltage of -20 V and an increase in the saturated output current by 14% at 20-V drain voltage. Moreover, performed dc I-V measurements at various ambient temperatures show that the proposed method not only increases the saturated output currents by over 10% for 1 × 100 μm 2 gate devices but also significantly reduces their knee walkout voltage from 6 to 3 V at 300 K. These results show that this device design approach can exploit further the potential of the GaN material system for transistor applications

Advanced gallium nitride technology for microwave power amplifiers

Gallium nitride (GaN) based technology has been heavily researched over the past two decades due to its ability to deliver higher powers and higher frequencies that are demanded by the market for various applications. One of GaN’s main advantages lies in its ability to form heterojunctions to wider bandgap materials such as Aluminium Gallium Nitride (AlGaN) and Aluminium Nitride (AlN). The heterostructure results in the formation of the so called 2 dimensional electron gas (2DEG), which exhibits high electron densities of up to 6E13 cm−2 and high electron mobilities of up to 2000 cm2/V·s that enable the devices to support high current densities. Furthermore, it supports very high breakdown fields of 3.3 MV/cm due to its wide bandgap of 3.4 eV. The main objective of this work was to further advance the transistor technology using simple, cost effective and reliable techniques. The AlN/GaN material system exhibits higher sheet carrier concentrations compared to the conventional ternary AlGaN barrier, but introduces additional challenges due to its reduced thickness of 2-6 nm compared to 18-30 nm of AlGaN. The additional challenges of the thin AlN binary barrier include strain relaxation, high gate leakage currents and high Ohmic contact resistances due to its high bandgap of 6.2 eV. In this work, a thin (5 nm) in-situ SiNx passivation layer was employed to reduce the strain relaxation, reduce gate leakage currents and improve Ohmic contacts resistances. The optimised Ohmic contact annealing condition resulted in an Ohmic contact resistance of 0.4 Ω·mm and a sheet resistance of 300 Ω

Mm-wave/THz Multi-Gigabit Wireless Links

This paper presents millimetre-wave (nm-wave) and terahertz (THz) multi-gigabit wireless links which use planar integrated circuit high power resonant tunnelling diode (RTD) oscillators as transmitters. By employing appropriate circuitry and improved device epilayer design, the oscillators generate an output power of 2 mW at 84 GHz and 1 mW at 206 GHz, respectively, which are the highest reported output powers for RTD-based oscillators at the respective frequencies. Preliminary wireless communication results show 15 Gbps and 13 Gbps data rates over distances of about half a meter

A sub-critical barrier thickness normally-off AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMT

A new high-performance normally-off gallium nitride (GaN)-based metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistor that employs an ultrathin subcritical 3 nm thick aluminium gallium nitride (Al0.25Ga0.75N) barrier layer and relies on an induced two-dimensional electron gas for operation is presented. Single finger devices were fabricated using 10 and 20 nm plasma-enhanced chemical vapor-deposited silicon dioxide (SiO2) as the gate dielectric. They demonstrated threshold voltages (Vth) of 3 and 2 V, and very high maximum drain currents (IDSmax) of over 450 and 650 mA/mm, at a gate voltage (VGS) of 6 V, respectively. The proposed device is seen as a building block for future power electronic devices, specifically as the driven device in the cascode configuration that employs GaN-based enhancement-mode and depletion-mode devices

Loading Effect of W-band Resonant Tunneling Diode Oscillator by Using Load-Pull Measurement

Resonant tunneling diode (RTD) is the fastest solid-state electronic device with the highest reported frequency at 1.92 THz [1]. RTD-based THz sources have many promising applications such as ultrafast wireless communications, THz imaging, etc. To date, the main limitation of RTD technology is the low output power. Many efforts had been made to increase the power level by such as optimizing the layer structure [2], employing more devices in an array [3], matching impedance by displacing the device in circuit [3], etc. Here we report the loading effect by using E/H impedance tuner. We found that the maximum power is over 20dB higher than the worst impedance matching and the frequency shift is within 14% range of the central frequency. The load-pull measurement provides a convenient way to investigate the power/frequency variation versus the impedance change. Further work will benefit from the measurement results to design corresponding impedance matching network. The power level of RTD oscillator will be increased