0.15-μm RF CMOS technology compatible with logic CMOS for low-voltage operation

Radio Frequency (RF) CMOS is expected to replace bipolar and GaAs MESFETs in RF front-end ICs for mobile telecommunications devices in the near future. In order for the RF CMOS to be popularly used in this application, compatibility of its process for high-speed logic CMOS and low supply voltage operation are important for low fabrication cost and low power consumption. In this paper, a 0.15-μm RF CMOS technology compatible with logic CMOS for low-voltage operation is described. Because the fabrication process is the same as the high-speed logic CMOS, manufacturability of this technology is excellent. Some of the passive elements can be integrated without changing the process and others can be integrated with the addition of a few optional processes. Mixed RF and logic CMOS devices in a one-chip LSI can be realized with relatively low cost. Excellent high-frequency characteristics of small geometry silicon MOSFETs with low-power supply voltage are demonstrated. Cutoff frequency of 42 GHz of n-MOSFETs, which is almost the same level at that of general high-performance silicon bipolar transistors, was obtained. N-MOSFET´s maintained enough high cutoff frequency of 32 GHz even at extremely low supply voltage of 0.5 V. Moreover, it was confirmed that degradation of minimum noise figure for deep submicron MOSFETs with 0.5 V operation is sufficiently small compared with 2.0 V operation. These excellent high-frequency characteristics of small geometry silicon MOSFETs under low-voltage operation are suitable for mobile telecommunications applications