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- Creators: Young, Alexander
- Creators: Ayyanar, Raja
Description
MESFETs are used in high frequency applications and are typically made from GaAs. Dr. Trevor Thornton designed a silicon-on-insulator MESFET \u2014 a cheaper alternative with competitive capabilities. This paper concerns the characterization and modeling of this device to exhibit its marketability as a CMOS integrated transistor. Overviews of the MESFET's history and DLTS (deep level transient spectroscopy) are offered.
ContributorsTerrell, Catherine Elaine (Author) / Thornton, Trevor (Thesis director) / Young, Alexander (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The constant scaling of supply voltages in state-of-the-art CMOS processes has led to severe limitations for many analog circuit applications. Some CMOS processes have addressed this issue by adding high voltage MOSFETs to their process. Although it can be a completely viable solution, it usually requires a changing of the process flow or adding additional steps, which in turn, leads to an increase in fabrication costs. Si-MESFETs (silicon-metal-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors) from Arizona State University (ASU) on the other hand, have an inherent high voltage capability and can be added to any silicon-on-insulator (SOI) or silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) CMOS process free of cost. This has been proved at five different commercial foundries on technologies ranging from 0.5 to 0.15 μm. Another critical issue facing CMOS processes on insulated substrates is the scaling of the thin silicon channel. Consequently, the future direction of SOI/SOS CMOS transistors may trend away from partially depleted (PD) transistors and towards fully depleted (FD) devices. FD-CMOS are already being implemented in multiple applications due to their very low power capability. Since the FD-CMOS market only figures to grow, it is appropriate that MESFETs also be developed for these processes. The beginning of this thesis will focus on the device aspects of both PD and FD-MESFETs including their layout structure, DC and RF characteristics, and breakdown voltage. The second half will then shift the focus towards implementing both types of MESFETs in an analog circuit application. Aside from their high breakdown ability, MESFETs also feature depletion mode operation, easy to adjust but well controlled threshold voltages, and fT's up to 45 GHz. Those unique characteristics can allow certain designs that were previously difficult to implement or prohibitively expensive using conventional technologies to now be achieved. One such application which benefits is low dropout regulators (LDO). By utilizing an n-channel MESFET as the pass transistor, a LDO featuring very low dropout voltage, fast transient response, and stable operation can be achieved without an external capacitance. With the focus of this thesis being MESFET based LDOs, the device discussion will be mostly tailored towards optimally designing MESFETs for this particular application.
ContributorsLepkowski, William (Author) / Thornton, Trevor (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
An in depth look at the rhetoric behind the campus carry debate at the University of Texas at Austin. This thesis researched and examined primary sources from The Daily Texan and The Austin-American Statesman attempting to analyze what was at stake for both sides of the argument and what the most effective rhetorical tool was.
ContributorsBlumstein, Cory Joshua (Author) / Young, Alexander (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The "no compromise" gun rights movement, which advocates against any form of gun control and the absolute right to keep and bear arms, and white Christian nationalism, a cultural framework built on the belief that Christianity should serve as the foundation of the American government, have both recently come to the national political forefront. The connection between these two movements runs deep: white Christian nationalism informs the religious rhetoric of the "no compromise" movement. To understand why this is, the existing scholarship argues that white Christian nationalists advocate against gun control because they believe the Second Amendment is divinely inspired and that gun control does not address what they perceive to be a moral decline in the United States. However, these explanations are insufficient to fully grasp the inherent importance of guns and gun rights to white Christian nationalists. Therefore, I examine the specific roles that guns play in their worldview.
ContributorsMyers, Patrick (Author) / Young, Alexander (Thesis director) / Livingston, Lindsay (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2023-12