SWITCH LINEARIZATION BY NON-LINEAR COMPENSATION OF A FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR

• US 20140009203A1
• Filed: 07/06/2013
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Cebi, Haki, Altunkilic, Fikret
• Granted Patent: US 9,059,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 327/379
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/77 Manufacture or treatment of devices consisting of a plurality of solid state components or integrated circuits formed in, or on, a common substrate electrically programmable read-only memories or multistep manufacturing processes therefor H10B69/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/823475 interconnection or wiring or contact manufacturing related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/0629 in combination with diodes, or resistors, or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1203 the substrate comprising an insulating body on a semiconductor body, e.g. SOI three-dimensional layout H01L27/0688
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 28/75 comprising two or more layers, e.g. comprising a barrier layer and a metal layer
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/162 without feedback from the output circuit to the control circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/6871 the output circuit comprising more than one controlled field-effect transistor
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/693 Switching arrangements with several input- or output-terminals, e.g. multiplexers, distributors logic circuits H03K19/00; code converters H03M5/00, H03M7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/44 Transmit/receive switching

Abstract

Radio-frequency (RF) switch circuits providing improved switching performance. An RF switch system includes at least one field-effect transistor (FET) disposed between a first node and a second node, each FET having a source, drain, gate, and body. A compensation circuit is connected to the respective source of the at least one FET. The compensation circuit may be configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the at least one FET.

Claims

1. A radio-frequency (RF) switch comprising:

at least one field-effect transistor (FET) disposed between a first node and a second node, each of the at least one FET having a respective source, drain, gate, and body; and

a compensation circuit connected to the respective source of the at least one FET, the compensation circuit configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the at least one FET.

2. The switch of claim 1 wherein the FET is a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) FET.

3. The switch of claim 1 wherein the compensation circuit includes a non-linear capacitor.

4. The switch of claim 3 wherein the non-linear capacitor includes a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitor.

5. The switch of claim 4 wherein the MOS capacitor is configured to generate one or more harmonics to substantially cancel the non-linearity effect generated by the FET.

6. The switch of claim 5 wherein the MOS capacitor includes an FET structure.

7. The switch of claim 6 wherein the one or more harmonics generated by the MOS capacitor is controlled at least in part by a body bias signal provided to the FET structure of the MOS capacitor.

8. The switch of claim 2 wherein the non-linear capacitor is connected to the source of the FET.

9. The switch of claim 1 further comprising a gate bias circuit connected to and configured to provide a bias signal to a gate of the FET.

10. The switch of claim 1 further comprising a body bias circuit connected to and configured to provide a bias signal to a body of the FET.

11. The switch of claim 1 wherein the first node is configured to receive an RF signal having a power value and the second node is configured to output the RF signal when the FET is in an ON state.

12. The switch of claim 11 wherein the at least one FET includes N FETs connected in series, the quantity N selected to allow the switch circuit to handle the power of the RF signal.

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. (canceled)

17. A method for fabricating a semiconductor die, the method comprising:

providing a semiconductor substrate;

forming at least one field-effect transistor (FET) on the semiconductor substrate, each of the at least one FET having a respective source, drain, gate, and body;

forming a compensation circuit on the semiconductor substrate; and

connecting the compensation circuit to the respective source or the respective drain of the at least one FET to thereby allow the compensation circuit to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the at least one FET.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising forming an insulator layer between the FET and the semiconductor substrate.

19. A radio-frequency (RF) switch module comprising:

a packaging substrate configured to receive a plurality of components;

a semiconductor die mounted on the packaging substrate, the die including at least one field-effect transistor (FET); and

a compensation circuit connected to a respective source or a respective drain of each of the at least one FET, the compensation circuit configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the at least one FET.

20. The switch module of claim 19 wherein the semiconductor die is a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) die.

21. The switch module of claim 19 wherein the compensation circuit is part of the same semiconductor die as the at least one FET.

22. The switch module of claim 19 wherein the compensation circuit is part of a second die mounted on the packaging substrate.

23. The switch module of claim 19 wherein the compensation circuit is disposed at a location outside of the semiconductor die.

24-35. -35. (canceled)