Hall Effect integrated circuits are used in a wide range of applications to measure the strength and/or direction of magnetic fields. These sensors play an increasingly significant role in the fields of automation, medical treatment and detection thanks largely to the enormous development of information technologies and electronic industries. Commercial Hall Effect ICs available in the market are all based on silicon technology. These ICs have the advantages of low cost and compatibility with CMOS technology, but suffer from poor sensitivity and detectability, high power consumption and low operating frequency bandwidths. The objective of this work was to develop and fabricate the first fully monolithic GaAs-InGaAs-AlGaAs 2-Dimensional Electron Gas (2DEG) Hall Effect integrated circuits whose performance enhances pre-existing technologies. To fulfil this objective, initially 2 µm gate length pHEMTs and 60/20 µm (L/W) Greek cross Hall Effect sensors were fabricated on optimised GaAs-In.18Ga.82As-Al.35Ga.65As 2DEG structures (XMBE303) suitable for both sensor and integrated circuit designs. The pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (pHEMTs) produced state-of-the-art output conductance, providing high intrinsic gain of 405, current cut-off frequency of 4.8 GHz and a low negative threshold voltage of -0.4 V which assisted in designing single supply ICs with high sensitivity and wide dynamic range. These pHEMTs were then accurately modelled for use in the design and simulation of integrated circuits. The corresponding Hall sensor showed a current sensitivity of 0.4 mV/mA.mT and a maximum magnetic DC offset of 0.35 mT at 1 V. DC digital (unipolar) and DC linear Hall Effect integrated circuits were then designed, simulated, fabricated and fully characterised. The DC linear Hall Effect IC provided an overall sensitivity of 8 mV/mT and a power consumption as low as 6.35 mW which, in comparison with commercial Si DC linear Hall ICs, is at least a factor of 2 more power efficient. The DC digital (unipolar) Hall Effect IC demonstrated a switching sensitivity of 6 mT which was at least ~50% more sensitive compared to existing commercial unipolar Si Hall ICs. In addition, a novel low-power GaAs-InGaAs-AlGaAs 2DEG AC linear Hall Effect integrated circuit with unprecedented sensitivity and wide dynamic range was designed, simulated, fabricated and characterised. This IC provided a sensitivity of 533 nV/nT, minimum field detectability of 177 nT (in a 10 Hz bandwidth) at frequencies from 500 Hz up to 200 kHz, consuming only 10.4 mW of power from a single 5 V of supply. In comparison to commercial Si linear Hall ICs, this IC provides an order of magnitude larger sensitivity, a factor of 4 higher detectability, 20 times wider bandwidth and over 20% lower power consumption (10.4 mW vs. 12.5 mW). These represent the first reported monolithic integrated circuits using a CMOS-like technology but in GaAs 2DEG technology and are extremely promising as complements, if not alternatives, to CMOS Si devices in high performance applications (such as high temperatures operations (>150 °C) and radiation hardened environment in the nuclear industry).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:634973 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Sadeghi, Mohammadreza |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/highly-sensitive-nano-tesla-quantum-well-hall-effect-integrated-circuits-using-gaasingaasalgaas-2deg(cec2fce1-7cf5-4d36-918d-873e0d38cac0).html |
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