FABRICATION AND MODELING OF PASSIVE COMPONENTS FOR InP-BASED MMICs

Passive components for use in planar Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) based on High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) on indium phosphide substrates are presented. Design, fabrication, and modeling issues of capacitors, resistors, inductors, transmission lines, via holes, and air bridges have been addressed. Sputtered thin films have been utilized to make metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors and thin film resistors (TFRs). Silicon dioxide and silicon nitride MIM capacitors exhibited capacitances from 100 to 300 pF/mm and tantalum nitride TFRs sheet resistivities of 80-85 ohms per square. Our microstrip transmission line fabrication technology has been utilized to make multi-turn, air bridged spiral inductors spanning from 0.5 nH to 4 nH. Air bridges and ground via holes have been used for connection and testing purposes. Scattering (S-) parameters, from 5 to 48 GHz, of all fabricated components have been measured and scalable models for CAD purposes investigated.