We report on 1.9-GHz performance of the Buried-Channel self-aligned WN/W-gate GaAs MESFET (BC-MESFET) for use in digital mobile telephone handsets with low power consumption. The BC-MESFET incorporates undoped i-GaAs epitaxial-grown surface layer on the ion-implanted channel. Both the power and noise performance of the BC-MESFET are superior to the conventional MESFET. The 0.6-µm gate power BC-MESFET exhibits a high power-added efficiency of 57% at 1-dB gain compression, which leads to low power dissipation of the handset. This power performance is attributed to high breakdown voltage which the undoped i-GaAs surface layer has brought about. The BC-MESFET has also shown a minimum noise figure of below 0.4 dB. Taking the IC-oriented fabrication process of the BC-MESFET into consideration, these FET performances demonstrate that the BC-MESFET is suitable for the single-chip MMIC that integrates RF front-end blocks for the 1.9-GHz small-size mobile telephone handset with long battery lifetime.

GaAs MESFET characteristics in the temperature range of 300 K to 500 K have been investigated using a two-dimensional device simulator. The temperature dependence of the threshold voltage, K-value, subthreshold current, source-to-gate capacitance, and cutoff frequency is theoretically explained.

We have developed a GaAs direct-conversion π/4 shifted QPSK modulator IC equipped with variable attenuators for controlling the output power level of the 1.9 GHz Personal Handy Phone system in Japan (PHS). The IC was successfully demonstrated showing state-of-the-art performance with the image rejection ratio of more than 36 dBc at a low input power of -10 dBm in 1.9 GHz frequency range. By using the "Gate Current Control method by Pull-down FET's" (GCCPF), the equipped attenuators vary the output power from 0 dB to -28 dB by 4 dB step. The IC operates at a 2.7 V supply with power dissipation of 259 mW. The 2.64.6 mm2 chip with about 400 elements was fabricated by a 0.5 µm WNx-gate BPLDD GaAs MESFET process.