The Evolution and Importance of Composition in RF Compound Semiconductors

This paper was focused on the evolution and importance of RF compound semiconductor devices. RF compound semiconductors began as a set of niche diode technologies where the performance commanded sale prices that offset the costly fabrication. Developments including SEMI standard wafers and planar processing led to a period of substantial investment and gave rise to a hype cycle that drove the industry along a silicon like model. The creative use of combinations of various compositions of III-V compounds has resulted in an extremely vibrant and mature industry. The major advantage that compound semiconductors have over competing technologies is the rich pool of available alloys that can produce ever more useful device performance. Pursuit of this avenue has in many ways, compensated for the lack of a true MOSFET analog.