MMIC : Devices and technologies. Transistors, technologies and modeling

MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits) designers use design platforms that integrate all the multiphysics tools (electrical, electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical) needed to design and optimize a function or set of functions called a system, and to generate the circuit layout.

These design platforms also integrate libraries of active and passive components, elementary functions and sub-assemblies. Libraries, dedicated to the various technologies and compatible with these design environments, are made available to the designer by the component and circuit manufacturer. In the field of microelectronics and integrated circuits, these manufacturers are known as "foundries". The libraries supplied by foundries are called "Design Kits". Generally speaking, a Design Kit is specific to a given technology and foundry.

Given these resources, the design of MMICs may at first glance seem straightforward and very much aided by these tools. There are several reasons why this is not the case: MMICs operate at high, or even very high, frequencies; technologies are often used at the limits of their performance. Even for a function of low complexity (e.g. a multi-stage HF amplifier), the number of parameters the designer needs to master is very large, and the generated and coupled effects of these parameters on circuit characteristics can rapidly exceed the designer's control.

In this article, we review MMIC technologies for both III-V and silicon dies. We describe the main principles of field-effect and bipolar transistors. We then review the electrical modeling of field-effect and bipolar transistors. The general idea is to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview to help him or her choose a given technology for MMIC design.

A second article [E1427] is devoted to passive components and the polarization of active components.