Direct measurement of the maximum operating region in GaAs HBTs for RF power amplifiers

Author

Inoue, A. ; Nakatsuka, S. ; Suzuki, S. ; Yamamoto, K. ; Shimura, T. ; Hattori, R. ; Mitsui, Y.

Author_Institution

High Frequency & Opt. Semicond. Div., Mitsubishi Electr. Corp., Itami City, Japan

Volume

3

fYear

2001

fDate

20-24 May 2001

Firstpage

1687

Abstract

Current and voltage waveforms of GaAs HBTs at 1 GHz have been directly measured using a microwave waveform measurement system. The maximum operating region has been experimentally investigated by sweeping load lines. The limits of a small input power are found to come from the thermal runaway and avalanche breakdown of the device. With large input power, the HBT is found to operate beyond the DC limit of thermal runaway.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; UHF bipolar transistors; UHF power amplifiers; avalanche breakdown; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; microwave measurement; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device measurement; 1 GHz; GaAs; GaAs HBT; RF power amplifier; avalanche breakdown; current waveform; maximum operating region; microwave measurement; swept load line; thermal runaway; voltage waveform; Current measurement; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Microwave measurements; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Virtual colonoscopy; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2001 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Phoenix, AZ, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6538-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2001.967230

Filename

967230