Gallium arsenide traveling-wave field-effect transistors

The design, modeling, and fabrication of a GaAs traveling-wave field-effect transistor (TWF) is reported. The TWF described is a device with a single continuous 1-µm-long gate and a total width of 3 mm which shows flat band gain from 1 to 10 GHz with the potential of much wider band performance (1-40 GHz) and high gains. An advanced theoretical model is presented which performs a full coupled transmission line modal analysis for three lines (source gate and drain) using ab.initio calculations of interelectrode capacitance and inductance matrices. Good agreement is demonstrated between theory and experiment for frequency gain response measurements using balanced feed circuits.