Dr. Robert Howell, Northrop Grumman Fellow in Advanced Technology, Mission System Sector at Northrop Grumman Corporation will give a seminar titled "Superlattice Castellated Field Effect Transistor (SLCFET) Technology" to the interested faculty and students.

Abstract

In response to the crowded electromagnetic spectrum environment, next generation RF/mmW systems continue to push performance to overcome many of the challenges posed by this environment. Higher power densities, higher power efficiencies, greater linearity, all at higher frequencies and with wider operational frequency bandwidths are all potential pieces of the solution for these next generation RF/mmW systems. These performance requirements are in turn creating a demand for advanced materials, such as wide bandgap (e.g. GaN, SiC, etc) and ultra-wide bandgap materials (e.g. diamond, Ga2O3, AlN, c-BN, etc.) as well as new device topologies that in conjunction with using these materials have the potential to solve the technology gaps between the future requirements and the current state of the art/state of practice materials and devices. This seminar will discuss this and then focus on a device topology that provides a potential solution to many of these issues, the Superlattice Castellated Field Effect Transistor (SLCFET, pronounced ‘slick-fet’), which uses an AlGaN/GaN superlattice structure between source and drain to form multiple parallel current channels, combined with a three-dimensional gate structure wrapping around nanoribbons etched into the epitaxially grown superlattice structure. The SLCFET technology has been demonstrated to be a superlative RF/mmW switch technology, as the first transistor structure to ‘break’ the linkage between a transistor’s ON state resistance and OFF state capacitance. This talk will detail the SLCFET’s functionality and performance as both an RF/mmW switch and amplifier technology, and how it provides a potential solution to the demand for greater performance.

Bio

Robert Howell received the B.S. degree in engineering and the B.A. degree in history from Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering on the topic of polycrystalline silicon thin film microelectronics for displays from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, in 2000. Since then he has been with Northrop Grumman Corporation in Linthicum, MD, currently in the Mission Systems Sector, where he has performed and led research and development of semiconductor devices and processes in a wide variety of material systems, including SiC, GaN, Si, GaAs, and GeTe, and a variety of device types, such as DMOSFETs, TFTs, SITs, HBTs, and HEMTs, most notably the invention of the SLCFET device topology for low loss RF and microwave switching applications. He was made an NG Fellow in 2017 and is a system architect for microelectronics in the Mission Systems’ Advanced Technology organization, supporting the development of advanced microelectronic components and their packaging suitable for next generation system architectures. He has co-authored over 50 publications and holds more than 20 patents.