Analytical Design Method for a Low-Distortion Microwave InGaP/GaAs HBT Amplifier Based on Transient Thermal Behavior in a GaAs Substrate

Author

Ishikawa, Ryo ; Kimura, Junki ; Honjo, Kazuhiko

Author_Institution

Dept. of Commun. Eng. & Inf., Univ. of Electro-Commun., Chofu, Japan

Volume

3

Issue

10

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

1705

Lastpage

1712

Abstract

Based on the transient thermal behavior in a GaAs substrate, the distortion caused by the self-heating effect in an InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) has been analytically compensated. The temperature-time variation in a transistor depends on the thermal characteristics of a semiconductor substrate at the base-band range. For a wideband digital modulated signal as input, a multistage thermal resistor-thermal capacitor ladder circuit is used as a model to emulate the thermal characteristics. The distortion analysis is based on Taylor and Volterra series expansion techniques including both electrical and thermal effects. In addition, a compensation condition for the distortion caused by the thermal influence is also successfully derived based on distortion analysis. The validity of the proposed analytical method is shown for an InGaP/GaAs HBT power amplifier operating at 1.95 GHz. The analytical design results are in good agreement with the measured results.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC power amplifiers; Volterra series; bipolar MMIC; bipolar analogue integrated circuits; compensation; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; intermodulation distortion; ladder networks; GaAs; GaAs substrate; InGaP-GaAs; Taylor series expansion technique; Volterra series expansion technique; distortion analysis; frequency 1.95 GHz; heterojunction bipolar transistor; low-distortion microwave InGaP/GaAs HBT power amplifier; multistage thermal resistor-thermal capacitor ladder circuit; self-heating effect; semiconductor substrate; temperature-time variation; transient thermal behavior; wideband digital modulated input signal; Equations; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Integrated circuit modeling; Nonlinear distortion; Thermal analysis; Thermal resistance; Distortion compensation; heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) chip; intermodulation distortion (IMD); nonlinear analysis; self-heating; thermal memory effect;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3950

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TCPMT.2013.2262504

Filename

6527302