Achievement

Devices capable of near THz operation have started to appear in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. One method of calibrating the speed of devices is the transit time frequency, or , which measures the time with which a crucial charge carrier such as an electron can pass through a control region of the device. Design of circuits that can exploit these devices in practical applications, and attain the full benefit from these devices in circuit speed is challenging. RPI IGERT trainee Mitch Leroy (Electrical Engineering) working with Prof. John McDonald (EE and Center for Integrated Electronics) is rendering these devices into designs that capture at least 50% of the fT in an actual frequency of circuit operation (wire and other parasitics drag down the device performance) and try to minimize that hit. They designed a 0.1 THz Radio Frequency (RF) receiver in the device using Silicon Germanium graded base Heterojunction Base Transistors (SiGe HBT's).