Reliability of SiGe HBTs for Power Amplifiers—Part I: Large-Signal RF Performance and Operating Limits

Author

Grens, Curtis M. ; Cheng, Peng ; Cressler, John D.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

3

fYear

2009

Firstpage

431

Lastpage

439

Abstract

This paper examines the performance and reliability implications associated with aggressively biased cascode SiGe HBT power-amplifier cores under large-signal RF operating conditions. The role of high-power RF stress on device degradation and failure is examined in detail. General expressions for a large-signal RF safe-operating area, which account for the effect of load impedance on the dynamic output current and voltage characteristics, are presented. These show excellent agreement with experimental results. Useful operating guidelines for reliable large-signal operation are provided.

Keywords

BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; MMIC power amplifiers; heterojunction bipolar transistors; integrated circuit reliability; semiconductor materials; HBT; SiGe; SiGe BiCMOS process; device degradation; dynamic output current; dynamic output voltage; high-power RF stress; large-signal RF performance; load impedance; power amplifier; reliability; Avalanche breakdown; SiGe HBTs; bipolar transistors; dynamic stress; mixed-mode stress; power amplifier (PA); reliability; safe-operating area (SOA);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Device and Materials Reliability, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1530-4388

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TDMR.2009.2025029

Filename

5075546