WIN Semiconductors, the world’s largest pure-play compound semiconductor foundry, announces the commercial release of its next-generation integrated mmWave GaAs platform, PQG3-0C. Targeting mmWave front ends, the PQG3-0C technology combines individually optimized E-mode low noise and D-mode power pHEMTs to enable best-in-class PA and LNA performance on the same chip.
The E-mode/D-mode pHEMTs have ƒt of 110GHz and 90GHz respectively, and both employ 0.15µm T-shaped gates fabricated by deep ultraviolet stepper technology. Deep UV photolithography is a proven, high-volume manufacturing technique for short gate length devices and eliminates the throughput constraints of traditional electron-beam patterning. Offering two application-specific mmWave transistors with RF switches and ESD protection diodes, PQG3-0C supports a wide range of front-end functions with increased on-chip functionality.
Both E-mode and D-mode transistors can be used for mmWave amplification and operate at 4V. The D-mode pHEMT targets power amplifiers and provides over 0.6 watt/mm with 11dB linear gain and close to 50% power-added efficiency when measured at 29GHz. The E-mode pHEMT operates best as a single supply LNA and delivers minimum noise figure below 0.7dB at 30GHz with 8dB associated gain, and third order output intercept (OIP3) of 26dBm.
The PQG3-0C platform is manufactured on 150mm GaAs substrates and provides two interconnect metal layers with low-k dielectric crossovers, PN-junction diodes for compact ESD protection circuits, and RF switch transistors. With a final chip thickness of 100µm, a backside ground plane with through-wafer-vias (TWV) are standard and can be configured as through-chip RF transitions to eliminate the adverse impact of bond wires at millimeter wave frequencies. PQG3-0C also supports flip-chip packaging and can be delivered with Cu-pillar bumps fabricated in WIN’s internal bumping line.
WIN Semiconductors is showcasing its compound semiconductor RF and mm-Wave solutions in booth #235 at the 2023 International Microwave Symposium being held at the San Diego Convention Center, from June 13th through June 15th.
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