Improved RF power performance of InAlN/GaN HEMT by optimizing rapid thermal annealing process for high-performance low-voltage terminal applications

Improved radio-frequency(RF)power performance of InAlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor(HEMT)is achieved by optimizing the rapid thermal annealing(RTA)process for high-performance low-voltage terminal applications.By optimizing the RTA temperature and time,the optimal annealing condition is found to enable low parasitic resistance and thus a high-performance device.Besides,compared with the non-optimized RTA HEMT,the optimized one demonstrates smoother ohmic metal surface morphology and better heterojunction quality including the less degraded heterojunction sheet resistance and clearer heterojunction interfaces as well as negligible material out-diffusion from the barrier to the channel and buffer.Benefiting from the lowered parasitic resistance,improved maximum output current density of 2279 mA·mm^(-1)and higher peak extrinsic transconductance of 526 mS·mm^(-1)are obtained for the optimized RTA HEMT.In addition,due to the superior heterojunction quality,the optimized HEMT shows reduced off-state leakage current of 7×10^(-3)mA·mm^(-1)and suppressed current collapse of only 4%,compared with those of 1×10^(-1)mA·mm^(-1)and 15%for the non-optimized one.At 8 GHz and V_(DS)of 6 V,a significantly improved power-added efficiency of 62%and output power density of 0.71 W·mm^(-1)are achieved for the optimized HEMT,as the result of the improvement in output current,knee voltage,off-state leakage current,and current collapse,which reveals the tremendous advantage of the optimized RTA HEMT in high-performance low-voltage terminal applications.

Investigation of NO removal using a pulseassisted RF discharge

In this paper,removal of nitrogen oxide（NO） is investigated in capacitive atmospheric pressure discharges driven by both radio-frequency（RF） and trapezoidal pulsed power with a onedimensional self-consistent fluid model.The results show that the number density of NO could be reduced significantly once a short pulse of low duty ratio is additionally applied to the RF power.It is found that the process of NO removal by the pulse-modulated RF discharge could be divided into three stages：the quick reaction stage,the NO removal stage,and the sustaining stage.Furthermore,the temporal evolution of particle densities is analyzed,and the key reactions in each stage are discovered.Finally,the influence on the removal efficiency of the voltage amplitude of the pulse and the RF voltage amplitude is investigated.

RF power design optimization in MRI system

Magnetic resonance image quality and patient safety have been the focus of engineering and research ever since the invention of equipment in the early 1970s.In high field(or ultrahigh field)MRI systems,the emerging techniques induced by B1 field challenges have promoted various potential solutions.This paper describes the relationship between RF power and B1þfield performance,and the overall requirements considered in RF subsystem design.The design of the RF in the MR system is systematically summarized,including the entire transmission chain,sequence algorithm and RF pulse design,and the probabilities for improvement and optimization in the system design are indicated.At the same time,the radio frequency related issues of the human whole-body 7 T MR and animal MR systems are discussed,especially the promising future showed by the technologies such as radio frequency parallel transmission technology in the ultrahigh field.

Numerical simulation and experimental research on an inductively coupled RF plasma cathode

In this study,numerical simulation and discharge current tests were conducted on an inductively coupled radio frequency(RF)plasma cathode.Numerical simulations and experimental measurements were performed to study the factors influencing the electron extraction characteristics,including the gas type,gas flow,input power and extracting voltage.The simulation results were approximately consistent with the experimental results.We experimentally found that the RF input power mainly determines the extracted electron current.An electron current greater than 1 A was acquired at 270 W(RF input power),2.766 sccm(xenon gas).Our results prove that an inductively coupled RF plasma cathode can be reasonable and feasible,particularly for low power electric propulsion devices.

Discharge Characteristics of Large-Area High-Power RF Ion Source for Positive and Negative Neutral Beam Injectors

A large-area high-power radio-frequency（RF） driven ion source was developed for positive and negative neutral beam injectors at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute（KAERI）. The RF ion source consists of a driver region, including a helical antenna and a discharge chamber, and an expansion region. RF power can be transferred at up to 10 kW with a fixed frequency of 2 MHz through an optimized RF matching system. An actively water-cooled Faraday shield is located inside the driver region of the ion source for the stable and steady-state operations of high-power RF discharge. Plasma ignition of the ion source is initiated by the injection of argongas without a starter-filament heating, and the argon-gas is then slowly exchanged by the injection of hydrogen-gas to produce pure hydrogen plasmas. The uniformities of the plasma parameter,such as a plasma density and an electron temperature, are measured at the lowest area of the driver region using two RF-compensated electrostatic probes along the direction of the shortand long-dimensions of the driver region. The plasma parameters will be compared with those obtained at the lowest area of the expansion bucket to analyze the plasma expansion properties from the driver region to the expansion region.

Direct growth of graphene films without catalyst on flexible glass substrates by PECVD

A hydrogen-plasma-etching-based plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD)synthesis route without metal catalyst for preparing the graphene films on flexible glass is developed.The quality of the prepared graphene films is evaluated by scanning electron microscopy,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,high-resolution transmission electron microscopy,ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy,and electrochemical measurements.In a radio frequency(RF)power range of 50 W-300 W,the graphene growth rate increases with RF power increasing,while the intensity ratio of D-to G-Raman peak(I_(D)/I_(G))decreases.When the RF power is higher than 300 W,the I_(D)/I_(G)rises again.By optimizing experimental parameters of hydrogen plasma etching and RF power,the properties of as-prepared flexible graphene on glass are modulated to be able to achieve the graphene's transparency,good electrical conductivity,and better macroscopic uniformity.Direct growth of graphene film without any metal catalyst on flexible glass can be a promising candidate for applications in flexible transparent optoelectronics.

A New Two-Branch Amplification Architecture and its Application with Various Modulated Signals

This paper proposes a new two-branch amplification architecture that combines baseband signal decomposition with RF front-end optimization. In the proposed architecture, the filtered modulated signals are separated into two components that are then amplified independently and combined to regenerate an amplified version of the original signal. A branch with an efficient amplifier transmits a low-varying envelope signal that contains the main part of the information. Another branch amplifies the residual portion of the signal. The baseband decomposition and parameters of the RF part are optimized to find the configuration that gives the best power efficiency and linearity. For M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation （M-QAM） signals, this technique is limited in terms of power efficiency. However, for filtered continuous phase modulation （CPM） signals, especially for minimum shift keying （MSK） and Gaussian MSK （GMSK） signals, high power efficiency can be achieved with no significant impact on the overall linearity. The results show that this technique gives better performance than the single-ended ctass-B amplifier.

Characteristics of GaN Thin Films Using Magnetron Sputtering System

The paper presents a polycrystalline GaN thin film with a hexagonal wurtzite structure under the optimized sputtering conditions of 40 W RF power, 5 mT working pressure, using pure nitrogen gas with a substrate temperature of 700°C. The study examines the effects of surface disorders and incorporates it in the thin films characteristics. A radio frequency (RF) Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) Magnetron Sputtering System has been used for the deposition of Gallium Nitride (GaN) on silicon, sapphire and glass substrates with different parameters. The power is varied from 40 W to 50 W, and the pressure from 4 mT to 15 mT. The effects of the RF sputtering powers and gas pressures on the structural properties are investigated experimentally. Sputtering at a lower RF power of 15 W does increase the N atomic percentage, however the deposition rate is substantially slower and the films are amorphous. GaN deposited on both silicon and sapphire wafer resulted in thin films close to stoichiometric once the N2 concentration is 60% or higher. It is also observed that the substrate cooling/heating effects improve the quality of the thin films with fewer defects present at the surface of the GaN epi-structure.

The effect of discharge conditions of ICP etching reactor on plasma parameters

This study investigated the inductively coupled plasma etching reactor and RF coils developed by North Microelectronic Corporation. Full three dimensional simulations were made at different discharge conditions. The simulations examined and compared the distribution and non-uniformity of several plasma parameters at a fixed position upon the wafer at different pressures and coil currents. These parameters included electron density, electron temperature and power deposition. The results demonstrate that the electron density, power deposition and uniformity increase with either higher pressure or stronger coil currents, while the electron temperature decreases at this condition. Coil number increase can reduce the non-uniformity of parameters in the spatial distribution. The linear relationship between power deposition and electron density does not always exist. The comparison between simulation results and experiment results is also presented in the paper.

RF thermal and new cold part design studies on a TTF-Ⅲ input coupler for Project-X

An RF power coupler is one of the key components in a superconducting （SC） linac. It provides RF power to the SC cavity and interconnects different temperature layers （1.8 K, 4.2 K, 70 K and 300 K）. The TTF-Ⅲ coupler is one of the most promising candidates for the High Energy （HE） linac of Project X, but it cannot meet the average power requirements because of the relatively high temperature rise on the warm inner conductor, so some design modifications will be required. In this paper, we describe our simulation studies on the copper coating thickness on the warm inner conductor with RRR values of 10 and 100. Our purpose is to rebalance the dynamic and static loads, and finally lower the temperature rise along tbe warm inner conductor. In addition, to get stronger coupling, better power handling and less multipacting probability, one new cold part design was proposed using a 60 mm coaxial line; the corresponding multipacting simulation studies have also been investigated.

Design of high reliability RF-LDMOS by suppressing the parasitic bipolar effect using enhanced p-well and double epitaxy

A laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor （LDMOS） device design with an enhanced p-well and double p-epitaxial structure is investigated for device ruggedness improvement while keeping its high device per- formance under high frequency. Based upon the device design, radio-frequency （RF） LDMOS transistors for GSM （global system for mobile communication） application have been fabricated by using 0.35/zm CMOS technolo- gies. Experimental data show that the proposed device achieves a breakdown voltage of 70 V, output power of 180 W. The RF linear gain is over 20 dB and the power added efficiency （PAE） is over 70% with the frequency of 920 MHz. In particular, it can pass the 20 ： 1 voltage standing wave ratio （VSWR） load mismatch biased at drain DC supply voltage of 32 V and output power at 10-dB gain compression point （P10dB）. The device ruggedness has been remarkably improved by using the proposed device structure.

Design and performance of the LLRF control system for CSNS linac

Objective The China Spallation Neutron Source(CSNS)linac is designed with beam energy of 80 MeV and a peak current of 15 mA in the first phase.It consists of RFQ,two bunchers of medium-energy beam transmission line,four DTL tanks and one debuncher of linac-to-ring beam transmission line.Correspondingly,eight online RF power sources are used to power these accelerators.In order to stabilize the amplitude,phase and resonant frequency of the RF accelerating field,and minimize beam loss,we have established digital low-level RF(LLRF)control system.Methods The LLRF system includes RF reference line,analog module(AM),clock distribution module,digital control module(DCM),high-power protection module,timing and RF interlock module and so on.The DCM is mainly responsible for the stability of the RF field amplitude and phase,and RF interlock module can quickly cut off the RF drive in case of arc in the RF transmission system,VSWR over threshold or cavity vacuum fault and so on.Result During beam commissioning,all of eight online units of LLRF control system were operating stably and reliably.The amplitude and phase variations of the linac fields have been achieved about±0.4%and±0.15°with 10-mA beam loading,much better than the design requirements of±1%in amplitude and±1°in phase.Conclusion With the help of this system,we achieved stable operation under different beam loads.Also,many important progresses have been achieved in the LLRF control system for amore convenient operation and a higher stability performance.This article describes the design and implementation of the LLRF for CSNS linac.

Compact waveguide CO_2 laser excited by a RF power supply

The design and performance of radio frequency (RF) excited partial Z-fold waveguide CO_2 laser with two channels are exposed. The length of the partial Z-fold channel is 3×460 mm and that of the single channel is 460 mm. The electrodes for the two channels are common and excited by a same RF source. According to our analysis, this kind of structure can greatly improve the laser offset frequency stability. In the experiments, we studied the variation of laser output power with gas pressure for two different channels. The maximum laser output power is about 23 W for the partial Z-fold channel and about 6 W for the single channel.

Analog and radio-frequency performance analysis of silicon-nanotube MOSFETs

This work presents a comparative study of the influence of various parameters on the analog and RF properties of silicon-nanotube MOSFETs and nanowire-based gate-all-around（GAA） MOSFETs.The important analog and RF performance parameters of SiNT FETs and GAA MOSFETs,namely drain current（/d）,transconductance to drain current ratio（g_m/I_d）,I_（on）/I_（off）,the cut-off frequency（f_T） and the maximum frequency of oscillation（/max） are evaluated with the help of Y- and H-parameters which are obtained from a 3-D device simulator,ATLAS^（TM）.It is found that the silicon-nanotube MOSFETs have far more superior analog and RF characteristics（g_m/I_d,f_T and /max） compared to the nanowire-based gate-all-around GAA MOSFETs.The silicon-nanotube MOSFET shows an improvement of ~2.5 and 3 times in the case of f_T and /max values respectively compared with the nanowire-based gate-all-around（GAA） MOSFET.

An ultralow power wireless intraocular pressure monitoring system

This paper describes an ultralow power wireless intraocular pressure （IOP） monitoring system that is dedicated to sensing and transferring intraocular pressure of glaucoma patients. Our system is comprised of a capac- itive pressure sensor, an application-specific integrated circuit, which is designed on the SMIC 180 nm process, and a dipole antenna. The system is wirelessly powered and demonstrates a power consumption of 7.56 μW at 1.24 V during continuous monitoring, a significant reduction in active power dissipation compared to existing work. The input RF sensitivity is -13 dBm. A significant reduction in input RF sensitivity results from the reduction of mis- match time of the ASK modulation caused by FM0 encoding. The system exhibits an average error of-4- 1.5 mmHg in measured pressure. Finally, a complete IOP system is demonstrated in the real biological environment, showing a successful reading of the pressure of an eye.

Higher harmonic voltage analysis of magnetic-alloy cavity for CSNS/RCS upgrade project

Background A rapid cycling synchrotron(RCS)in China Spallation Neutron Source(CSNS)would be upgraded,and the proton beam power will reach 200-500 kW.Three RF cavities loaded by magnetic-alloy(MA)material will be added in RCS tunnel to form a dual-harmonic RF system with eight ferrite-loaded cavities in RCS.The bandwidth of the MA cavity is wide because of its intrinsic Q value of less than 1.Higher harmonics can be excited in MA cavities,because the RF power is directly fed into the MA cavity from the final stage of the RF power amplifier.The distortion of voltage in the cavity gap caused by higher harmonics may deteriorate the beam quality.The influence of the higher harmonics to beam needs to be evaluated and the amplitude of higher harmonics should to be suppressed.Methods We built a mathematical model with two functions based on the RF bucket acceptance and bunch factor to evalu-ate this influence.Groups of harmful amplitudes and phases of higher harmonics were found according to the mathematical model by using multi-objective particle swarm optimization(MOPSO).Conclusion The dual-harmonic RF system with higher harmonics in CSNS/RCS and a suitable harmonic suppression for MA cavities was discussed according to the results of MOPSO and the beam dynamics simulations.