InGaAsP channel HFET's on InP for OEIC applications

A model for the calculation of the input noise of a high impedance photoreceiver is proposed, taking into account the contributions of low-frequency characteristics of the FET. Simulations based on this approach show that excess gate leakage current and low-frequency excess noise, usually observed in InGaAs channel FET's, strongly penalize the photoreceiver sensitivity for low to medium data rates. New InGaAsP channel HFET's have been developed and fabricated to solve those problems, dc measurements on 1/spl times/100 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ gate HFET's show good I/sub ds/-V/sub ds/ characteristics with associated gate leakage currents lower than 200 nA. Promising ft of 18 GHz and f/sub max/ of 40 GHz have been recorded on 0.5/spl times/200 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ gate transistors. Low-frequency gate and channel noise measurements demonstrate the suitability of InGaAsP channel HFET structure and technology for low noise applications. A hybrid pin-HFET high impedance photoreceiver has been assembled with a 1/spl times/150 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ gate transistor. A very close agreement is found between photoreceiver input noise predicted by our model and experimental results. Record sensitivities of 34.8 dBm at 622 Mbit/s and -28.7 dBm at 2.5 Gbit/s are inferred from noise measurements, confirming the strong potential of InGaAsP channel HFET's for the fabrication of high sensitivity photoreceivers operating at moderate data rates.<
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