A Broadband Active Microwave Monolithically Integrated Circuit Balun in Graphene Technology

Applied Sciences, vol. 10, pp. 2183

Abstract

This paper presents the first graphene radiofrequency (RF) monolithic integrated balun circuit. It is composed of four integrated graphene field effect transistors (GFETs). This innovative active balun concept takes advantage of the GFET ambipolar behavior. It is realized using an advanced silicon carbide (SiC) based bilayer graphene FET technology having RF performances of about 20 GHz. Balun circuit measurement demonstrates its high frequency capability. An upper limit of 6 GHz has been achieved when considering a phase difference lower than 10° and a magnitude of amplitude imbalance less than 0.5 dB. Hence, this circuit topology shows excellent performance with large broadband performance and a functionality of up to one-third of the transit frequency of the transistor.

Authors 11

1. Dalal Fadil

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

2. Vikram Passi Aachen AMO GmbH Advanced Microelectronic Center Aachen

   AMO (Germany)

   Affiliation as printed

   AMO GmbH, Advanced Microelectronic Center Aachen (AMICA), Otto-Blumenthal-Str. 25, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3. Wei Wei

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

4. Soukaina Ben Salk

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

5. Di Zhou

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

6. Włodek Strupiński

   Warsaw University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 75, str., 00-662 Warsaw, Poland

   Warsaw University of Technology [Warsaw] (Pl. Politechniki 1 00-661 Warsaw - Poland)

7. Max C. Lemme Aachen AMO GmbH Advanced Microelectronic Center Aachen Chair of Electronic Devices

   AMO (Germany) · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   AMO GmbH, Advanced Microelectronic Center Aachen (AMICA), Otto-Blumenthal-Str. 25, 52074 Aachen, Germany

   Chair of Electronic Devices, RWTH Aachen University, Otto-Blumenthal-Str. 2, 52074 Aachen, Germany

8. Thomas Zimmer

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Laboratoire de l'Intégration du Matériau au Système · Université Bordeaux-I

   Affiliation as printed

   IMS Laboratory, CNRS UMR 5218, Université Bordeaux 1, 33400 Talence, France

9. Emiliano Pallecchi

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

10. Henri Happy

    Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université de Lille · Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie

    Affiliation as printed

    University of Lille—IEMN CNRS UMR8520, Avenue Poincaré, CS 60069, 59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

11. Sébastien Frégonèse

    Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Laboratoire de l'Intégration du Matériau au Système · Université Bordeaux-I

    Affiliation as printed

    IMS Laboratory, CNRS UMR 5218, Université Bordeaux 1, 33400 Talence, France