ADVANCED DEVICE PROCESSING FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE,HIGH-RELIABILTY NITRIDE ELECTRONICS

The primary objective of this SBIR program is the development of HIGH-RELIABILITY NITRIDE DEVICE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY?i.e., to establish the device fabrication processes required to realize a variety of novel devices having improved-performance for III-Nbased heterojunction field-effect transistors (HFETs) [or high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs)] for the mid-to-high-frequency range (10-150GHz). Phase I will concentrate on novel device technologies and ?proof of concept? experiments and Phase IIwill further develop and transfer this technology into production at Magellus Corporation. These devices will be capable of operation at high frequencies (above 20GHz), high power densities (above 10W/mm), and high temperatures (above 300C). Oneimportant application for these devices will be the realization of high-performance transmit/receive RF circuits for high-efficiency radar. The theoretical performance of these devices is estimated to be at least a factor of three above the best valuesfor nitride HFETs presently reported in the literature. By using novel AlGaN/GaN HFET device designs (developed in a companion MDA-sponsored STTR program recently awarded to Magellus) combined with the use of novel device passivation procedures and Ohmiccontact designs, we will develop high-performance devices, which will be incorporated into RF circuits in Phase II of this SBIR. The impact of this work will be extremely broad and will provide improved performance, high-frequency, high-power RF andmicrowave sources for a variety of DoD and civilian applications, including wireless communications base stations, transmit/receive modules for X-band ballistic-missile-defense (BMD) radar and high-frequency secure communications applications.