ABSTRACT
As silicon technology has scaled to shorter dimensions and higher frequency operation, silicon integrated circuits (ICs) are beginning to be used in applications traditionally served by III-V compound semiconductors (e.g., microwave/millimeter wave ampliˆers and high-frequency mixed signal and data converter ICs). However, while the silicon-based ICs clearly provide more cost-effective solutions and increased integration density, they exhibit signiˆcant performance limitations when compared to III-V-based ICs. Due to the superior transport properties of III-V materials, III-V devices offer higher gain, efˆciency, bandwidth, and dynamic range/linearity, and lower noise characteristics and RF loss at relaxed geometries than silicon-based devices. In addition, the direct band gap III-V devices are better suited as optical sources and receivers in optoelectronics.
