Abstract: A method of forming high quality inductors and capacitors in semiconductor integrated circuits utilizes one or more sealed air-gaps in a supporting substrate under the passive devices. The process is compatible with standard silicon processing and can be implemented with high temperature processing at the beginning, middle, or end of an integrated circuit fabrication process. A one micron air-gap in a high resistivity epitaxial layer results in a parasitic capacitance equivalent to 3.9 micron thick silicon oxide or a 11 micron thick depletion layer in silicon.

Abstract: A MOS transistor including a gate electrode on a gate oxide over a channel region between a source region and a drain region also includes a shield electrode at least partially on the gate oxide adjacent to, self-aligned with, and at least partially coplanar with the gate electrode and between the gate electrode and drain region. Placing the shield electrode on the gate oxide improves the gate-drain shielding, reduces the gate-drain capacitance, Cgd, and reduces hot electron related reliability hazard.

Abstract: In an RF/microwave power amplifier comprising a linear array of MOSFET transistors in a semiconductor substrate, the transistors having gate and drain bond pads between adjacent transistors, drain to gate feedback capacitance is reduced by offsetting the drain bond pads from the gate bond pads. Bond wires to the drain bond pads extend in the offset direction from the drain bond pads, and bond wires to the gate bond pads extend from the gate bond pads in the opposite direction to reduce capacitive coupling between the bond wires and reduce the length of the bond wires.

Abstract: Gate to drain capacitance in a lateral DMOS and vertical DMOS field effect transistor is minimized by providing a conductive shield plate under the gate and between the gate and the drain of the transistor. In operation, the shield plate is preferably connected to a DC voltage potential and coupled to AC ground for RF power applications. The shield plate is readily fabricated in a conventional polysilicon gate process by adding one additional polysilicon deposition (or other suitable material), one additional mask, and one additional etch step. The shield plate can include a raised portion which provides lateral capacitive isolation between the gate and the drain. Alternatively, a shield contact can be provided above the shield plate and between the gate and drain to provide lateral isolation.

Abstract: A method of fabricating a MOSFET transistor and resulting structure having a drain-gate feedback capacitance shield formed in a recess between a gate electrode and the drain region. The shield does not overlap the gate and thereby minimizes effect on the input capacitance of the transistor. The process does not require complex or costly processing since one additional non-critical mask is required with selective etch used to create the recess.

Abstract: A digital signal processor-resident RF power amplifier performance monitor generates and updates signals for controlling each of an adaptive predistortion unit and a vector modulator of a preamplification signal processing loop, and a vector modulator of a feed-forward error extraction and reinjection loop. A performance monitoring routine subjects monitored aliased data to a window function and determines the spectrum of the data. The spectral data is applied to a sensitivity mask, which masks the data in accordance with a carrier--intermodulation distortion function associated with the operation of the amplifier. The output of the mask is processed to derive a measure of intermodulation distortion power. The intermodulation distortion power is subjected to an error minimization operator, such as a perturbational gradient search, that adjusts each of the control signals for the components of the loops, in such a manner as to maximally cancel intermodulation distortion products.