WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NOVEL METAL-SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD-EFFECT-TRANSISTOR (MESFET) TECHNOLOGY SUITABLE FOR EXTR…

Public award description

WE HAVE DEVELOPED A NOVEL METAL-SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD-EFFECT-TRANSISTOR (MESFET) TECHNOLOGY SUITABLE FOR EXTREME ENVIRONMENT ELECTRONICS. THE MESFET TECHNOLOGY IS FULLY CMOS-COMPATIBLE AND CAN BE INTEGRATED ALONGSIDE CONVENTIONAL MOSFETS WITH NO CHANGES TO THE PROCESS FLOW. UNLIKE THE MOSFETS HOWEVER, THE MESFETS DO NOT REQUIRE A FRAGILE METAL-OXIDE-SEMICONDUCTOR (MOS) INTERFACE AND ARE EXTREMELY ROBUST. WITH BREAKDOWN VOLTAGES IN THE RANGE 10-50V THE MESFET OPERATING VOLTAGE GREATLY EXCEEDS THAT OF THE ACCOMPANYING CMOS. THE COMBINATION OF CMOS COMPATIBILITY WITH HIGH BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE ALLOWS FOR INTEGRATED DC-TO-DC POWER CONVERSION SOLUTIONS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE REQUIRE DISCRETE COMPONENTS BASED ON LATERALLY DIFFUSED METAL-OXIDE-SEMICONDUCTOR (LDMOS) DEVICES. THE MESFETS ARE INTRINSICALLY RADIATION TOLERANT UP TO 1 MRAD(SI) AND HAVE BEEN DEMONSTRATED TO WORK OVER THE TEMPERATURE RANGE -196C TO +150C. THE PHASE 1 R&D WE ARE PROPOSING WILL CHARACTERIZE THE LARGE SIGNAL SWITCHING PERFORMANCE OF THE SOI MESFETS FOR BUCK CONVERTER APPLICATIONS IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS.