Advanced PSA Bipolar Transistors for Wireless Applications: Measurements of Scattering Parameters and Noise Figure

A complete investigation on the performance of a series of double polysilicon self-aligned (PSA) bipolar transistors in terms of scattering parameters and noise figure is here reported. The devices have been characterized over the 1-4 GHz frequency range in several bias conditions to the aim of assessing the optimum bias values for the best trade-off between noise and gain performance. This is the first part of an extensive investigation currently performed on 5 families of PSA devices having different emitter configuration and size which have been manufactured by SGS-Thomson to undergo a comparative analysis on the global transistor performance.