Experimental Investigation of Drain Noise in High Electron Mobility Transistors: Thermal and Hot Electron Noise

Abstract

We report the on-wafer characterization of $S$-parameters and microwave noise temperature ($T_{50}$) of discrete metamorphic InGaAs high electron mobility transistors (mHEMTs) at 40 K and 300 K and over a range of drain-source voltages ($V_{DS}$). From these data, we extract a small-signal model and the drain (output) noise current power spectral density ($S_{id}$) at each bias and temperature. This procedure enables $S_{id}$ to be obtained while accounting for the variation of small-signal model, noise impedance match, and other parameters under the various conditions. We find that the thermal noise associated with the channel conductance can only account for a portion of the measured output noise. Considering the variation of output noise with physical temperature and bias and prior studies of microwave noise in quantum wells, we hypothesize that a hot electron noise source based on real-space transfer of electrons from the channel to the barrier could account for the remaining portion of $S_{id}$. We suggest further studies to gain insights into the physical mechanisms. Finally, we calculate that the minimum HEMT noise temperature could be reduced by up to $\sim 50$% and $\sim 30$% at cryogenic temperature and room temperature, respectively, if the hot electron noise could be suppressed.