Gallium Arsenide Digital Integrated Circuits.

Abstract : This report describes the results of Phase I of the Gallium Arsenide Digital Integrated Circuits program, which was intended to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating digital circuits with GaAs metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) technology. Dc, RF and switching parameters of the GaAs MESFET were characterized, a large-signal nonlinear device model developed and verified with the characterization data and a MESFET logic gate fabricated. The logic gate exhibited a propagation delay of 60 ps plus 15 ps per output load and a useful bandwidth of 3-4 GHz. Based on these experimental results, it is predicted that practical medium-scale logic systems with 2-3 GHz clock rates will be possible. Progress in the development of a MESFET process with self-aligned gate is reported. (Author)