mmW / Sub-mmW Technologies and Applications

mmW / Sub-mmW Technologies and Applications

October 30, 2014

Jeffrey M. Yang; Bill Deal, Kevin Leong, Alex Zamora, Vesna Radisic, Gerry Mei, Rich Lai, Steve Sarkozy, Wayne Yoshida, Po-Hsin Liu, Mike Lange, Joe Zhou, Ben Gorospe, Wes Yamaski, Khan Nguyen, Keyey Kyoda, Paul Yocum, Viviana Navarro, Javier Velazquez, Aaron Oki, and Reynold Kagiwada

UC Davis mmW Workshop

NGAS Research & Technology

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. NGAS Case 14-2731 dated 10/17/14.

UC David Millimeter Wave Workshop October 2014 2 UC Davis Millimeter-Wave Workshop

Outline

• Overview • Applications • Enabling Technologies • Performance Demonstrations

– TMICs – Integrated Module Assembly

• Summary


NGAS High Frequency Amplifier Technology

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. DISTAR Case 20963, NGAS Case 13-0506 dated 5/6/13.


mmW / Sub-mmW System Considerations

• Large Bandwidth – Radar: Enhance resolution with reduced integration time – Comm: High data rate

• Compact Payload Via Frequency Scaling – Physically Small, Electrically Large Antenna Aperture – Multi-Function

• System Stand-Off / Operation Range • New Research Areas and Unforeseen Applications

UC David Millimeter Wave Workshop October 2014 5

ITU Atmospheric Attenuation Model

0.001

0.01

0.1

1

10

100

1.00 10.00 100.00

Loss

(d

B/k

m)

Frequency (GHz)

Water Vapar

Dry Air


Commercial / DoD Application Convergence

Sense And Avoid

Vision Enhancement

Inter-Vehicle Comm

Compact, Low cost, Payloads for SWaP Constrained Platforms

Automotive Unmanned Aerial Vehicle


5

Dual-Develop

Technology

Understanding Terahertz

Integration

100nm

30nm

•Dime

•Waveguide

Micromachined

Waveguide

Electromagnetic

Transition to Engineered

Waveguide

FundamentalNanotech

Components

PackagingConnectivityMetrology

Electron Beam Lithography

75um

25um

Scaled Material.

Scaled Wafers.

Scaled Layout.

Advanced Layout and Processing

Suppress

Substrate

Modes

Custom Shape

THz Components.

THz Probes.

THz Stations.

Leading THz Circuit Expertise

THz Modeling THz Design Techniques

Gate Bypass

Gate BypassSource

Drain

Gate

DrainSource

Source

~100um

10um

Technological Innovations


Northrop Grumman Advanced InP HEMT Technology


Performance of THz Scaled HEMT Transistors

• High frequency operation requires “THz Scaled” gate width (not just length)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

GM

(m

S/m

m)

9.2µmfinger

Scaling

4.2µmfinger

3.2µmfinger

2.2µmfinger

1.2µmfinger

340GHz

9.2 µm finger

670 GHz

4.2 µm finger

1 THz?

1.2 µm finger

DC


Param Units Param

MAG dB ~6 @ 0.67 THz

fT THz 0.7

fmax THz > 1.4

RF Gm mS/mm 2900

Cgs pF/mm 0.54

Cgd pF/mm 0.15

Rg Ω/mm 100

Rs Ω.mm 0.15

30nm

UC David Millimeter Wave Workshop October 2014 10

TMIC Process Considerations

Front Side TMIC compaction Consideration

• Diagonal Airbridges • Airbridges over Capacitors • Metal Spacing • Layer to layer metal connection

Post Processing / Dice • Minimize chip dimension to avoid cavity

moding • Dicing yield near 100% • Good control of transition area • Improved cleanliness, reduced chip-outs

1.7um



NGAS InP HEMT MMIC Gain/stage

High Gain Per Stage Enabled by Successful Transistor Scaling Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. DISTAR Case 20963, NGAS Case 13-0506 dated 5/6/13.


Wideband Low Noise Amplifier

Key Features • Linear Gain: 29 dB, typical

• Noise Figure: 2.5 dB, typical • 0.1um InP HEMT Process

• DC Power: < 35 mW

• X = 2.0 mm, Y = 0.85 mm

Amplifier Electronics


8

9

10

11

12

13

14

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

200 205 210 215 220 225 230

Po

we

r Gain

(dB

)Po

ut,

Pin

(mW

)

Frequency (GHz)

Pout (mW)

Gain(dB)

Pin(mW)

0

2

4

6

8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2 3 4 5 6 7

PA

E (%)

Po

ut (

mW

), G

ain

(dB

)

Input Power (mW)

Pout (mW)

Gain(dB)

PAE(%)

220 GHz SSPA Module

Measured Pout at 210 GHz Measured Pout vs. Frequency


• Grounded Coplanar Waveguide (GCPW) design

• WR4 split-block Module • On-chip, dual dipole

transition to waveguide


• Measured 4.7 mW Pout at 300 GHz at module level. • Pout at MMIC ~ 7.8 mW @ 300 GHz (dipole loss ~1.2 dB)

Measured Output Power at Waveguide Flange at 300 GHz

Measured S-Parameters at Waveguide Flange

-30

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

200 225 250 275 300 325 350

S-Pa

ram

ete

rs (d

B)

Frequency (GHz)

s11(db) s21(db) s22(db)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

-35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0

(mW

)

Gai

n(d

B)

Pin(dBm)

Gain(dB) Pout(mW) Pin(mW)

Pout Gain

Pin


THz HEMT 300 GHz Buffer Amplifier


2-Way Combiner Module Photo

Y-Junction

• Y-junction power splitter/combiner and TMIC amplifier cavities fabricated in single housing

• Loss per coupler estimated to be <0.3 dB based on comparison with single chip fixture

• Successfully power combined 2 TMIC amplifiers

Demonstrated >2.5 mW SSPA at referenced to waveguide flange

S21

S22

S11

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5

Po

ut, P

in (m

W)

Gai

n(d

B)

Pin(dBm)

Measured at 653.5 GHz Gain

Pin

Pout Ph.I Metric


650 GHz PA Module


NGAS PA Trends

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

100 1000

Pow

er [d

Bm

]

Frequency [GHz]

Power referenced to MMICPower referenced to package


Expect continued performance improvement as newest HEMT scaling is deployed in integrated circuits


670 GHz Micro-Machined Amplifier

• Measured 9 dB gain at 655 GHz from power combined amplifier micromachined chip

• InP THz HEMT amplifier • Integrated low loss

micromachined power combiner

525 550 575 600 625 650 675 700500 725

-10

0

-20

10

Frequency [GHz]

S-P

aram

eter

s [d

B] S21

S11

S22

Micromachined Chip

Active layer

Test Fixture

Chip

DC board

WR1.5 End block

Center carrier

WG Split

E-plane probe E-plane probe

Amp

Amp



670 GHz Low Noise Amplifier

• 10 Stage LNA using 14 um transistors • 30 dB peak gain at 670 GHz (measured on-wafer) • 70 mW DC power consumption • Integrated electromagnetic probe version also developed

for practical packaging at 670 GHz

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

500 550 600 650 700 750

S-P

aram

eter

[dB

]

Frequency [GHz]

S21

S11

S22



850 GHz TMIC LNA

LNA Photograph

• 3.6 dB measured gain at 850 GHz • Ten stage design • Re-simulated design with transistor model

parameters taken from wafer • Higher Cgs and Cgd reduces gain and shifts

frequency response

S21

S11

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

0.80

0.85

0.90

0.95

0.50

1.00

-30

-20

-10

0

10

-40

20

Frequency [THz]S

-Par

amet

ers

[dB

]

S22


First Demonstrated Gain at 850 GHz

Frequency Multipliers


-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

270 280 290 300 310 320 330

Co

nve

rsio

n G

ain

(d

B)

Output Frequency (GHz)

Tripler chip

• 10 dBm input power Test condition

Tripler+ amp chip

WR3.4 WG (300 GHz)

100 GHz Quartz E-plane

Transition

DC Bias

X3 circuit

300 GHz buffer

amplifier DC Bias

Features • InP HEMT common source single

ended HEMT tripler • Conversion gain of tripler+amp circuit

increased by 10 dB compared to tripler only circuit

• 5 dBm output Power at 300 GHz • Measured result at waveguide flange

-30

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

-5 0 5 10 15

Ou

tpu

t p

ow

er

(dB

m)

Input Power (dBm)

Tripler+ amp chip

• Fin = 100 GHz Test condition

Tripler chip


THz HEMT 300 GHz Tripler


593 GHz Doubler with Input Buffer Amplifier

Input Buffer Amplifier HEMT Doubler

Measured Results at Waveguide Flange

Features • 593 GHz single ended doubler

integrated with 300 GHz band buffer amplifier

• Circuit can be fully saturated at 0 dBm input power

• Provides -18 dBm (16μW) output power



800 GHz Doubler

Measured Output Power at Flange Measured PiPo curve

Curve shows that doubler is not saturating, indicating higher output power potential.

Fin=401 GHz

Features Input Frequency 400 GHz Output Frequency 800 GHz Pout > 40 μW


Integrated Module Assembly


InP HEMT 670 GHz Integrated Transmitter

2 mW Measured Power

IF

LO RF

100 GHz LO input

RF

RF out

PA SH Mixer

THz Exciter

IF inputPA

70 GHz

LO Amp

300 GHz

3 LO multiplier

670 GHz



InP HEMT Integrated Receiver

Driver

Mixer

LO Amp

Multiplier

• Realized a grounded coplanar waveguide topology with 2um spacing for 670 GHz operation

• Realized on and off chip

power combining with high efficiency

• WR1.5 (670 GHz) 10 stage amps have such processing uniformity that 1 gate bias and 1 drain bias sufficient for entire 10 stages.

• Processed receiver and exciter System-on-chips with >75% RF yield

• Reduced spacing between transistors to 10um, still have interstage matching caps, airbridge, and drain/gain lines

• Realized world’s first HEMT smmW/THz mixers and multipliers

• Macrocells reduced high

frequency transition loss

x3 100

70

670



Wafer Level Packaging

Wafer

Bonding

Wafer 2

Wafer 1

Sealing Ring

(Wafer 1)

Sealing Ring

(Wafer 2)

Phase

shifter

Amplifier

Ground Fence Through wafer via

ICIC

antenna

Wafer

Bonding

Wafer 2

Wafer 1

Sealing Ring

(Wafer 1)

Sealing Ring

(Wafer 2)

Phase

shifter

Amplifier

Ground Fence Through wafer via

ICIC

antenna

Back Side Bump

Front Side Antenna

Enclosed Electronics

*MTT 2007

Summary


Conclusions

• Transistor based electronics operating > 800 GHz have been demonstrated – Low Noise Amplifiers – Power Amplifiers – Integrated receivers and transmitters

• Frequency scaled packaging techniques are now being developed – Micromachined waveguides – Wafer Level Assembly – Monolithic integration of entire sub-systems

• Foundation transistor technologies developed can be leverage to provide performance enhancements in the RF operation frequency


Documents

mmW / Sub-mmW Technologies and Applications