Performance assessment of GaN HEMT technologies for power limiter and switching applications

In this work, a systematic study on GaN HEMT devices for Switching and Power Limitation is presented. Various manufacturing approaches are considered, all fully compliant for monolithic integration with HPA and LNA circuits. A set of devices have been used to compare various configuration options, including different layouts, single or multiple Gate, or the adoption of Schottky or Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) Gate junctions. Devices performances under high input power signal @3GHz have been compared, showing that MIS Gate switch devices in series configuration can handle in ON-state 80W/mm power for ldB insertion loss compression, and for double Gate topology higher power handling can be obtained in OFF-state (>40dBm for +1dB isolation compression). GaN HEMT switches in shunt configuration have been studied for Power signal protection application, evidencing that single MIS Gate devices with W_G=900μm provides low insertion loss (<;0.1dB) and effective power limitation (-5dB @ P_IN=40dBm), associated with 23dB ON-state isolation.