Novel shielded coplanar waveguides on GaN-on-low resistivity Si substrates for MMIC applications

Eblabla, A., Wallis, D.J., Guiney, I. and Elgaid, K. (2015) Novel shielded coplanar waveguides on GaN-on-low resistivity Si substrates for MMIC applications. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 25(7), pp. 427-429. (doi: 10.1109/LMWC.2015.2429120)

Abstract

Shielded-Elevated Coplanar Waveguides (SE-CPWs) with low loss have been successfully developed for the first time for RF GaN on low-resistivity silicon (LR-Si) substrates. Transmission losses of less than 0.4 dB/mm at X-band and better than 2 dB/mm at K-band with less than 20 dB return loss were exhibited by the developed SE-CPW, making them comparable in performance to those on traditional (semi-insulating) SI substrates. The developed waveguides use air-bridge technology to suspend CPW tracks above the HEMT GaN layer on LR-Si, directly above an additional thin layer of SiN and shielded ground planes. EM simulation was used to adjust structure parameters for performance optimization. In this work, we eliminated RF energy coupled into the substrate, paving the way for a cost-effective and higher integration GaN MMICs on LR-Si.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Elgaid, Dr Khaled and Eblabla, Mr Abdalla
• Authors: Eblabla, A., Wallis, D.J., Guiney, I., and Elgaid, K.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
• Journal Name: IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters
• Publisher: IEEE
• ISSN: 1531-1309
• ISSN (Online): 1558-1764
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 IEEE
• First Published: First published in IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 25(7):427-429
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.