Antimonide-based, High-speed, Low-power, Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor

In the phase I SBIR program Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) successfully demonstrated that an antimonide-based HBT, with speeds in excess of 100 GHz and near zero turn-on voltage should be achievable. This was done by growing an AlInAsSb layerlattice matched to GaSb with an Al content less than 50%--overcoming the miscibility gap. To our knowledge, such growth has not been previously reported. The enabled device structure has the advantages of near zero-turn-on-voltage (low power) and highmobilities (high speed). Thus, high-speed low power devices, which are needed for high-speed communication, will now be possible. The issues resolved in the Phase I effort were lattice matching, alloy tuning, doping, device design, and measurement ofmaterial properties, among others. In Phase II, we propose to build upon the results from Phase I and (1) produce fully functioning HBT devices; (2) demonstrate zero-turn-on-voltage device operation; (3) fully characterize the devices; (4) package thedevices (for Phase III commercialization); (5) optimize the device design to achieve > 100 GHz operation; (6) sample devices to collaborators, and (7) define the routine device production routes for Phase III commercialization. Phase III commercializationwill go forward in an SMI-Sarnoff joint venture for military and commercial applications.