III-V device technologies for electronic applications

The electronic and optical properties of III-V materials can be engineered by materials growth and fabrication techniques with various degrees of freedom in design, such as in the bandgap, doping, and thickness of the material. These properties have been used to make state-of-the-art high-speed electronic circuits and optical devices suitable for a broad range of applications. AT&T is committed to these techniques of electronics and photonics to maintain its leadership in communications and information technology. In this paper, we review the use of III-V compound semiconductors for ultra-high-speed electronics, in particular the heterostructure field-effect transistor (HFET) and the heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) technology. We also discuss future trends, including the integration of electronic and optical functions on the same chip.