Rugged HBT Class-C power amplifiers with base-emitter clamping

Author

Luo, Xi ; Halder, Subrata ; Hwang, James C M

Author_Institution

Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-10 June 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The ruggedness of HBT Class-C power amplifiers was improved by adding an anti-parallel diode to the amplifier input to limit the negative swing of the base-emitter voltage. The improved amplifier could withstand 3:1 instead of 2:1 mismatch in CW operation, and 2.5:1 instead of 1.5:1 mismatch in pulse operation. In contrast to other approaches with emitter ballast, active feedback, or electrostatic discharge protection circuits, the present approach is simple to implement and has negligible impact on overall amplifier output power, gain or efficiency.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; heterojunction bipolar transistors; indium compounds; power amplifiers; InGaP-GaAs; active feedback; antiparallel diode; base-emitter clamping; base-emitter voltage; electrostatic discharge protection circuits; emitter ballast; pulse operation; rugged HBT class-C power amplifiers; Avalanche breakdown; Clamps; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Microwave amplifiers; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Resistors; Avalanche breakdown; heterojunction bipolar transistors; impedance matching; power bipolar transistor amplifiers; robustness; standing wave measurements;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2011 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-754-2

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2011.5972559

Filename

5972559