Comprehensive experimental investigation of gate current limitation effects on power GaAs FETs RF performances

Author

Constantin, N. ; Ghannouchi, Fadhel M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Ecole Polytech. de Montreal, Que., Canada

fYear

1995

fDate

16-20 May 1995

Firstpage

717

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time a detailed experimental investigation of gate current limitation effects on power GaAs FETs RF performances. This gate current limitation is entirely accomplished by dynamic compensation of the gate bias voltage. Effects of this current limitation on power added efficiency and output power performance have been examined through an extensive experimental investigation over the entire Smith chart. Comprehensive results are given and allow to determine the optimal resistor value needed for the gate current limitation. The thermal runaway problem is also taken into consideration when selecting the gate resistor.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; UHF field effect transistors; compensation; equivalent circuits; gallium arsenide; power MESFET; power field effect transistors; semiconductor device testing; GaAs; RF performances; Smith chart; dynamic compensation; gate bias voltage; gate current limitation effects; optimal resistor value; output power performance; power GaAs FETs; power added efficiency; thermal runaway problem; Circuits; FETs; Gallium arsenide; Impedance; Power generation; Radio frequency; Resistors; Roentgenium; Thermal resistance; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1995., IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2581-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1995.406007

Filename

406007