Reduction of sidegating in GaAs analog and digital circuits using a new buffer layer

Sidegating effects relevant to GaAs digital, analog, and monolithic microwave integrated circuits have been significantly reduced or eliminated by using a low-temperature buffer layer grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. At radio frequencies the low-temperature buffer layer reduced the signal coupling between devices, which is an important consideration in microwave integrated circuits. For digital circuit applications, the low-temperature buffer layer eliminated the dependence of the voltage level of an inverter on the logic state of adjacent devices and on the duty cycle of a pulse train encountered in the circuit. The highly resistive nature of the low-temperature buffer allows experimental identification of the role that a buffer layer plays in sidegating.< >