A voltage reference implemented in GaAs pHEMT for SoC application

Abstract

Using III-V compound semiconductor materials, particularly gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices instead of compared to silicon-based complementary metal oxide semiconductor, a voltage reference (VR) circuit applied for radio frequency (RF) applications with significant advantages in RF performance is proposed in the paper. Given lattice defects, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technology faces difficulties in realizing P-channel metal oxide semiconductor devices, necessitating new circuit structures to achieve the functionality of traditional VRs. To leverage the superior RF performance of compound semiconductors in implementing RF transceiver systems-on-chip, this paper proposes a VR based on GaAs pHEMT technology. The proposed VR circuit was fabricated and tested using a 0.15 μm GaAs pHEMT process. The test results demonstrated that the designed VR circuit exhibits a current load capability of 17 mA, a temperature coefficient of 186 ppm/℃, and a power line regulation of 22.5 mV/V. This VR circuit occupies a total chip area of 0.2 mm² and can be applied to wireless fidelity or other transceiver systems.