GaN 8Gbps High-Speed Relay MMIC for Automated Test Equipment

Abstract

An 8 Gbps high-speed relay MMIC for an Automated Test Equipment (ATE) using a gallium nitride is developed and evaluated. Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor structure with a tantalum oxynitride is employed to reduce a leakage current for ATE applications. The fabricated MMIC shows 0.3 nA of the leakage current, 12 GHz of a -3 dB bandwidth, and excellent eye-opening of 8 Gbps signals with a 18-leads QFN package. The MMIC has 2.0×2.4 mm of package size and achieves higher channel density than an existing photo relay generally applied in ATE.