Noise and gain performance of PSA transistor series for personal communication systems vs. emitter number and operating conditions

The booming market of communication system applications in the low microwave range put greater demands on the component performance at lower supply voltages and limited current consumption, as well as on production cost and integration level. In this work, we present the results of an extensive characterization activity carried out on several advanced polysilicon bipolar transistors as requested by the manufacturer. The devices were grouped according to their emitter finger number and were characterized over the 2-6 GHz frequency range in terms of noise, gain and scatterino parameters at different bias conditions. A comparative analysis has been performed to explore how the transistor performance is affected by the emitter size. This analysis has evidenced distinguishing features of this advanced bipolar process which allows for realizing highly competitive silicon bipolar devices for use in telecommunication equipment at microwave frequencies.