GaAs Integrated Circuits

Abstract

Gallium arsenide and other III-V compound semiconductor devices and circuits have seen phenomenal advances in speed and density during the last decade. New device structures such as HEMT, heterojunction bipolar and MISFET have been developed for meeting the demands for very high speed digital and microwave and millimeter wave applications.

This paper reviews the developments in GaAs integrated circuit technology and applications. Commonly employed processes such as epitaxy based mesa isolated process, combined analog/digital technology, all implant planar technology, self aligned mesfet and self aligned HEMT have been discussed. Performances of digital logic circuits and gate arrays have been examined. Developments in GaAs static memory have been presented. A brief discussion on analog circuits is also given.

Indexing terms:

• GaAs IC
• Integrated circuits
• III-V semiconductor devices
• LSI/VLSI/VHSIC
• IC logic and memory