100nm and 60nm GaN/Si MMICs: The optimum complement to Si MMICs for 5G Mobile Telecommunications

The Si RF community has been dreaming of replacing III/V solutions for the last 30 years but the Telecommunication System roadmap is ruling the roost making III/V MMICs an indispensable complement to Si RF MMICs. Although, most of the III/V community has overlooked the importance of roadmapping for the last 30 years, we have pursued our strategy of releasing a 3rd generation of III/V MMIC processes. Our new 100nm and 60nm GaN/Si MMIC mmW processes are full replacement of GaAs power and low noise processes for 5G applications. GaN/Si is low cost without limits on wafer size and is ready for heterogeneous integration. Early mmW GaN/Si products for 5G applications are reported here : (1) 29-33GHz 10W PA with 35% peak PAE and 25 linear gain and (2) 28-34GHz T/R chip including a 5W PA, 1,5dB NF LNA and 1dB insertion loss switch The above results show that our GaN/Si processes areas good as a conventional mmW GaAs PHEMT processes for noise and gain but with an RF power density 3 to 5 times higher and at least 10 dB better robustness, while keeping low lag and no recovery time. In addition, the relatively low voltages (12V), for GaN, ensure an easier management of reliability and thermal constraints.