Title :
An on-chip SiGe HBT characterization circuit for use in self-healing RF systems
Author :
Howard, Duane C. ; England, Troy D. ; Lourenco, Nelson E. ; Cardoso, Adilson S. ; Cressler, John D.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA
fDate :
Sept. 30 2013-Oct. 3 2013
Abstract :
An on-chip device characterization circuit that extracts the current gain of a SiGe HBT test transistor, and which can be useful in the context of various “self-healing” RF circuits and systems, is presented. The characterization circuit includes built-in temperature compensation that enables accurate measurement of the current gain of the test device over a wide temperature range. The device characterization circuit can also be used to measure variations in the current gain of the test device due to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations, as well as other phenomena that can potentially degrade performance.
Keywords :
Ge-Si alloys; built-in self test; compensation; electric current measurement; heterojunction bipolar transistors; semiconductor device testing; PVT variations; SiGe; SiGe HBT test transistor; built-in temperature compensation; current gain; on-chip device characterization circuit; process voltage and temperature variations; self-healing RF circuits; test device; Current measurement; Gain measurement; Radio frequency; Semiconductor device measurement; Silicon germanium; Temperature distribution; Temperature measurement; BIST; HBT; PVT; SiGe; self-healing circuit;
Conference_Titel :
Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), 2013 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Bordeaux
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-0126-5
DOI :
10.1109/BCTM.2013.6798176
