We report on a 3 nm AlN/GaN HEMT technology for millimeter-wave applications. Electrical characteristics for a 110 nm gate length show a maximum drain current density of 1.2 A/mm, an excellent electron confinement with a low leakage current below 10 μA/mm, a high breakdown voltage and a FT/Fmax of 63/300 GHz at a drain voltage of 20V. Despite residual trapping effects, state of the art large signal characteristics at 40 GHz and 94 GHz are achieved. For instance, an outstanding power added efficiency of 65% has been reached at VDS = 10V in pulsed mode at 40 GHz. Also, an output power density of 8.3 W/mm at VDS = 40V is obtained associated to a power added efficiency of 50%. At 94 GHz, a record CW output power density for Ga-polar GaN transistors has been reached with 4 W/mm. Additionally, room temperature preliminary robustness assessment at 40 GHz has been performed at VDS = 20V. 24 hours RF monitoring showed no degradation during and after the test.

Integrated photonics is an emerging technology for many existing and future telecommunication and data communication applications. One platform of particular interest is silicon nitride (SiN), thanks to—among others—its very low-loss waveguides. However, it lacks active devices, such as lasers, amplifiers, and photodiodes. For this, hybrid or heterogeneous integration is needed. Here, we bring high-speed uni-traveling-carrier photodiodes to a low-loss SiN-platform by means of micro-transfer-printing. This versatile technology for heterogeneous integration not only allows very dense and material-efficient III–V integration but also eases the fabrication, yielding high-performance detectors. The waveguide-coupled photodiodes feature a responsivity of 0.3 A/W at 1550 nm, a dark current of 10 nA, and a bandwidth of 155 GHz at a low bias. At zero bias, a record bandwidth of 135 GHz is achieved. We further demonstrate that this integrated detector can be used for direct photomixing at terahertz frequencies. A back-to-back communication link with a carrier frequency of around 300 GHz is set up, and data rates up to 160 Gbit/s with a low error vector magnitude are shown, showcasing a near-identical performance at zero bias.

In this paper, we report on an enhancement of mm-wave power performances with a vertically scaled AlN/GaN heterostructure. An AlGaN back barrier is introduced underneath a non-intentionally doped GaN channel layer, enabling the prevention of punch-through effects and related drain leakage current under a high electric field while using a moderate carbon concentration into the buffer. By carefully tuning the Al concentration into the back barrier layer, the optimized heterostructure offers a unique combination of electron confinement and low trapping effects up to high drain bias for a gate length as short as 100 nm. Consequently, pulsed (CW) Load-Pull measurements at 40 GHz revealed outstanding performances with a record power-added efficiency of 70% (66%) under high output power density at V_DS = 20 V. These results demonstrate the interest of this approach for future millimeter-wave applications.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing is a well-established high-sensitivity, label-free and real-time detection technique for biomolecular interaction study. Its primary working principle consists of the measurement of the optical refractive index of the medium that is in close vicinity of the sensor surface. Bio-functionalization techniques allow biomolecular events to be located in such a way. Since optical refractive indices of any medium varies with the temperature, the place where the measurement takes place shall be within a temperature-controlled environment in order to ensure any temperature fluctuation is interpreted as a biomolecular event. Since the SPR measurement probes the sensed medium within the penetration depth of the plasmonic wave, which is less or in the order of 1 µm, we propose to use the metallic film constituting the detection surface as a localized heater aiming at controlling finely and quickly the temperature of the sensed medium. The Joule heating principle is then used and the modeling of the heater is reported as well as its validation by thermal IR imaging. Using water as a demonstration medium, SPR measurement results at different temperatures are successfully compared to the theoretical optical refractive index of water versus temperature.

This article aims to discuss challenges and performances of a passive load-pull test bench dedicated to the G-band frequencies. The first task of this work is the development of the setup to perform high power generation, impedance generation, and high-power dynamic of measurement. The solution proposed is the association of an external power system of source and detectors, with an integrated synthesizer of impedance. The proposed system requires several analysis steps in order to be validated. On the other hand, special care is dedicated to the calibration of the scalar measurement in the millimeter-wave frequency range. Then, due to the unknown phase at the input and output of the device under test (DUT), scalar measurement can lead to high inaccuracy. Hence, an adaptive calibration is proposed and applied to the measurement of a bipolar transistor at 185 GHz. We highlight the effect of the missing phase information on the accuracy of measurement. Results of the measurement are discussed.

With the evolution of radio frequency (RF)/microwave technology, there is a demand for circuits that are able to meet highly challenging RF front end specifications. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology is one of the leading platforms for upcoming wireless generation. The degradation of performance due to substrate coupling is a key problem to address for telecommunication circuits, especially for the high throw count switches in RF front ends. In this context, a fast, flexible and local laser ablation technique of the silicon handler allows for the membrane suspension of large millimeter-scale circuits. This approach enables the evaluation of the ultimate performance in the absence of the substrate, i.e., without dissipative losses and substrate-induced non-linear effects, on capacitive comb coupling structures and RF switches. Compared to high-resistivity SOI substrates, the high frequency characterization of RF membrane switches reveals a superior linearity performance with a reduction in second and third harmonics by 17.7 dB and 7.8 dB, respectively. S-parameter analysis also reveals that membrane suspension entails insertion losses that are improved by 0.38 dB and signal reflection lowered by 4 dB due to a reduced off-state capacitance. With reference to a trap-rich substrate, the membrane suspension also achieves an additional 7.8 dB reduction in the second harmonic, indicating that there is still scope for improvement in this figure of merit. The obtained results demonstrate a new way to evaluate optimized circuit performance using post-fabrication substrate engineering.