Intrinsically Linear Transistor for Millimeter-Wave Low Noise Amplifiers

Transistors are the backbone of any electronic and telecommunication system but all known transistors are intrinsically nonlinear introducing signal distortion. Here, we demonstrate a novel transistor with the best linearity achieved to date, attained by sequential turn-on of multiple channels composed of a planar top-gate and several trigate Fin field-effect transistors (FETs), using AlGaN/GaN structures. A highly linearized transconductance plateau of >6 V resulted in a record linearity figure of merit OIP3/P DC of 15.9 dB at 5 GHz and a reduced third-order intermodulation power by 400× in reference to a conventional planar device. The proposed architecture also features an exceptional performance at 30 GHz with an OIP3/P DC of ≥8.2 dB and a minimum noise figure of 2.2 dB. The device demonstrated on a scalable Si substrate paves the way for GaN low noise amplifiers (LNAs) to be utilized in telecommunication systems, and is also translatable to other material systems.