Development of SiC MESFET Based MMIC Technology

Licentiate thesis, 2006

A SiC MESFET based MMIC process has been successfully developed. This technology has its main potential in high power microwave circuits. It will offer the benefits of the high integration seen in GaAs MMIC at the same time as it will offer the benefits of the high voltage operation seen in Si LDMOS and Si BJTs. Within the framework of this project, passive circuit elements in the form of MIM capacitors, spiral inductors and thin film resistors, based on the inhouse InP MMIC process have been developed with respect to the high power and high voltage requirements of SiC MMIC. This was complemented with a via-hole process to enable microstrip technology and low inductive ground connections for large periphery devices. The high power potential of SiC MMICs are demonstrated by an 8 W amplifier at 3 GHz, a high linearity S-band mixer with an IIP3 of 38 dBm and two high power limiter circuits.