An InGaP/GaAs Merged HBT-FET (BiFET) Technology and Applications to the Design of Handset Power Amplifiers

The last decade has seen GaAs HBTs emerge as the dominant technology in wireless handset power amplifiers. Modern application requirements and size limitations have driven industry leaders towards the co-integration of depletion mode n-FET and GaAs HBT. The merger of Bipolar and FET, or BiFET, gives an additional degree of freedom in the design of advanced power amplifiers independent of a silicon controller. This paper provides an overview of the various techniques that can be used to join the two device technologies and then shows how a merged epitaxial structure, where an FET is formed in the emitter layers of an HBT, combines functional versatility with the high volume manufacturability needed to supply millions of power amplifiers at low cost. A large-signal model of the FET structure is developed which takes into account the unique physics and geometries of the device, including voltage-dependant parameters and charges on all four electrical terminals. Specific handset applications that can benefit or be enabled by BiFET are presented, such as on-off switching, low voltage bias controllers , Auto-Bias power amplifiers, and bias circuits with low or no voltage reference. When npn-only bias circuitry is limited to low voltage reference levels, HBT power amplifiers with BiFET bias stages are shown to have superior RF performance to their npn-only counterparts.     

用于微波放大器的InGaP HBT微波动态大信号波形特性

In wireless mobile communications and wireless local area networks （WLAN）, advanced InGaP HBT with power amplifiers are key components. In this paper, the microwave large signal dynamic waveform characteristics of an advanced InGaP HBT are investigated experimentally for 5.8 GHz power amplifier applications. The microwave large signal waveform distortions at various input power levels, especially at large signal level, are investigated and the reasons are analyzed. The output power saturation is also explained. These analyses will be useful for power amplifier designs.     

Microwave dynamic large signal waveform characterization of advanced InGaP HBT for power amplifiers

In wireless mobile communications and wireless local area networks (WLAN), advanced lnGaP HBT with power amplifiers are key components. In this paper, the microwave large signal dynamic waveform characteristics of an advanced InGaP HBT are investigated experimentally for 5.8 GHz power amplifier applications. The microwave large signal waveform distortions at various input power levels, especially at large signal level, are investigated and the reasons are analyzed. The output power saturation is also explained. These analyses will be useful for power amplifier designs.     

Fully integrated 3 x 3 mm BiFET stage-bypass power amplifier for WCDMA handset application

By using a merged process of a heterojunction bipolar transistor and a field effect transistor (BiFET), a stage-bypass power amplifier (PA) for wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) application has been developed. The size of the PA was reduced by integrating control logic circuits on a single BiFET monolithic microwave integrated circuit with virtually identical performance compared to a previous work. Adopting the stage-bypass technique, this work accomplished remarkable average current reduction compared to a typical class-AB PA, thus contributing to extended operation time.     

双频段接收机中的BiFET低噪声放大器

设计了一种采用BiFET结构的低噪声放大器（LNA）,这种结构通过BiCMOS工艺使低噪声放大电路集合了双极型晶体管的低噪声特性和CMOS晶体管的高线性度。应用优化的BiFET Cascode共源共栅结构能够明显地提高低噪声放大器的性能,并且能应用于两个不同频率。本文设计的低噪声放大器在低偏置电流（1．7mA）和低功耗（5．7mW）的情况下能取得1．69dB的噪声系数、15．96dB的电压增益、一8．5dBm的IIP3和-67dB的反向隔离。设计的BiFET低噪声放大器是采用了AMS0．8μm的BiCMOS混合信号工艺,经过优化可以用于工业、室内的远程无线控制系统包括无线门禁系统。     

A Low Distortion and Low Dissipation Power Amplifier with Gate Bias Control Circuit for Digital/Analog Dual-Mode Cellular Phones

A power amplifier operating at 3.3 V. has been developed for CDMA/AMPS dual-mode cellular phones. It consists of linear GaAs power MESFET's, a new gate bias control circuit, and an output matching circuit which prevents the drain terminal of the second MESFET from generating the harmonics. The relationship between the intermodulation distortion and the spectral regrowth of the power amplifier has been investigated with gate bias by using the two-tone test method and the adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACPR) method of CDMA signals. The dissipation power of the power amplifier with a gate bias control circuit is minimized to below 1000 mW in the range of the low power levels while satisfying the ACPR of less than ?26 dBc for CDMA mode. The ACPR of the power amplifier is measured to be ?33 dBc at a high output power of 26 dBm.     

High-efficiency Ku-band HBT MMIC power amplifier

A Ku-band monolithic HBT power amplifier was developed using a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)-grown AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) operating in common-emitter mode. At a 7.5 V collector bias, the amplifier produced 0.5 W CW output power with 5.0 dB gain and 42% power-added efficiency in the 15-16 GHz band. When operated at a single frequency (15 GHz), 0.66 W CW output power and 5.2 dB of gain were achieved with 43% PAE     

5W ISM波段InGaP/GaAs HBT功率放大器MMIC

通过分析InGaP/GsAsHBT器件的热学和电学特点,结合HBT大功率放大器芯片在技术性能、稳定性、可靠性及尺寸等方面的要求,通过优化设计HBT功率器件单元和匹配电路,开发了一个大功率、高效率、小尺寸的ISM波段功率放大器单片集成电路。该三级放大器的各级器件单元的发射极面积分别为320μm2,1280μm2,5760μm2,芯片内部包括了输入、输出50Ω匹配电路,面积仅为1.9mm×2.1mm。放大器采用5V单电源供电,在2.4～2.5GHz频率范围内线性增益为27dB,2dB增益压缩点输出饱和功率达到37dBm,功率附加效率为46%。     

A Monolithic High-Efficiency 2.4-GHz 20-dBm SiGe BiCMOS Envelope-Tracking OFDM Power Amplifier

A monolithic SiGe BiCMOS envelope-tracking power amplifier (PA) is demonstrated for 802.11g OFDM applications at 2.4 GHz. The 4-mm² die includes a high-efficiency high-precision envelope amplifier and a two-stage SiGe HBT PA for RF amplification. Off-chip digital predistortion is employed to improve EVM performance. The two-stage amplifier exhibits 12-dB gain, <5% EVM, 20-dBm OFDM output power, and an overall efficiency (including the envelope amplifier) of 28%.     

一种应用于InGaP/GaAs HBT射频功率放大器的在片温度补偿电路

A new on-chip temperature compensation circuit for a GaAs-based HBT RF amplifier applied to wireless communication is presented.The simple compensation circuit is composed of one GaAs HBT and five resistors with various values,which allow the power amplifier to achieve better thermal characteristics with a little degradation in performance.It effectively compensates for the temperature variation of the gain and the output power of the power amplifier by regulating the base quiescent bias current.The temp...     

Ku-Band Power Amplifier MMIC Chipset with On-Chip Active Gate Bias Circuit

We propose a Ku-band driver and high-power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) employing a compensating gate bias circuit using a commercial 0.5 μm GaAs pHEMT technology. The integrated gate bias circuit provides compensation for the threshold voltage and temperature variations as well as independence of the supply voltage variations. A fabricated two-stage Ku-band driver amplifier MMIC exhibits a typical output power of 30.5 dBm and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 37% over a 13.5 GHz to 15.0 GHz frequency band, while a fabricated three-stage Ku-band high-power amplifier MMIC exhibits a maximum saturated output power of 39.25 dBm (8.4 W) and PAE of 22.7% at 14.5 GHz.     

高频大功率SiGe/Si HBT的设计

详细地阐述了高频大功率SiGe/Si异质结双极晶体管(HBT)设计中的一些主要问题,主要包括器件的纵向设计中发射区、基区以及收集区中掺杂浓度、形貌分布、层厚的选择以及横向布局设计中的条宽、间隔的选择等.并对这些主要参数的选择给出了一些实用的建议.     

Application of enhancement mode FET technology for wirelesssubscriber transmit/receive circuits

Single-supply power amplifiers have become the new paradigm in portable phone handsets due to the recent availability of heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and pseudo enhancement mode PHEMT technology. We have developed a true enhancement mode heterostructure insulated-gate FET device (HIGFET) which is suitable for use in both saturated and linear power amplifiers. A three-stage power amplifier designed for 1900-MHz NADC application delivered +30-dBm output power and 41.7% power-added efficiency with an adjacent channel power of -29.8 dBc and alternate adjacent channel power of -48.4 dBc. In addition to this, we have demonstrated excellent noise figure and linearity performance for small-signal applications. At 900 MHz and bias conditions V_DS=1.0 V and I_DSQ=1 mA, a single-stage amplifier achieved a noise figure of 1.17 dB with an associated gain of 18.5 dB. These results make the technology an ideal candidate for application in both transmitter and receiver circuits     

InGaP/GaAs HBT射频功率放大器在片温度补偿电路研究

本文针对无线通信应用的InGaP/GaAs HBT射频功率放大器,提出一种新型的在片温度补偿电路。该温度补偿电路由一个GaAs HBT和五个阻值大小不同的电阻组成,结构简单,可实现性强。通过调整偏置电路中参考电压的方法调节功率放大器静态偏置电流,有效地实现补偿功率放大器功率增益和输出功率随温度变化的特性,优化了射频功率放大器的热特性,性能随温度只有略微的退化。将该温度补偿电路置入一个无线通信应用的三级单片集成功率放大器,温度在-20℃到＋80℃范围内变化时,增益随温度变化的变化量从4.3dB提高到只有1.1dB。     

Implications of thermal instability on HBT power amplifier reliability

Thermal stability is one of several important performance requirements for RF power amplifier modules used for cellular applications. In this work, the conditions for thermal instability in an HBT array for shared and individual ballast configurations are evaluated using experimental results from RF biased life test (RFHTOL) and ADS simulations. The instability is modest under nominal operating conditions, but becomes more severe at elevated temperatures which are frequently used in accelerated reliability tests such as RFHTOL. Thermally unstable power cells exhibit current crowding where one or two cells hog most of the current, resulting in localized hot spots from increased power dissipation density. This paper discusses the link between reliability failures during RFHTOL reliability testing and the thermal stability of HBT arrays used in a power amplifier. Shared ballast arrays are shown to be less thermally stable than individually ballasted arrays and thus have more failures during RFHTOL testing. Electro-thermal results indicate the layout aspects of power amplifier module also play an important role in determining junction temperatures for various stages.     

InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor and RF power amplifier reliability

Electrothermal stress on advanced InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) was carried out experimentally. It showed a long-term stress-induced base current instability and a decrease in the DC current gain. A class-AB RF power amplifier (PA) was also considered to study the stress effect on the amplifier’s RF performance. The SPICE Gummel–Poon (SGP) model parameters were extracted from the pre- and post-stress HBT data and used in Cadence SpectreRF simulation. The amplifier’s post-stress RF characteristics, such as the output power and power-added efficiency (PAE), remained almost unchanged even though the post-stress HBT’s DC current gain had dropped to 73.6% of its initial value.     

A low power 2.5-5 GHz low-noise amplifier using 0.5-μm GaAs pHEMT technology

正A two-stage 2.5-5 GHz monolithic low-noise amplifier(LNA) has been fabricated using 0.5-μm enhanced mode AlGaAs/GaAs pHEMT technology.To achieve wide operation bandwidth and low noise figure,the proposed LNA uses a wideband matching network and a negative feedback technique.Measured results from 2.5 to 5 GHz demonstrate a minimum of 2.4-dB noise figure and 17-dB gain.The input and output return loss exceeded -10-dB across the band.The power consumption of this LNA is 33 mW.According to the author's knowledge,this is the lowest power consumption LNA fabricated in 0.5-μm AlGaAs/GaAs pHEMT with the comparable performance.     

An on-chip temperature compensation circuit for an InGaP/GaAs HBT RF power amplifier

A new on-chip temperature compensation circuit for a GaAs-based HBT RF amplifier applied to wireless communication is presented.The simple compensation circuit is composed of one GaAs HBT and five resistors with various values,which allow the power amplifier to achieve better thermal characteristics with a little degradation in performance.It effectively compensates for the temperature variation of the gain and the output power of the power amplifier by regulating the base quiescent bias current.The temperature compensation circuit is applied to a 3-stage integrated power amplifier for wireless communication applications,which results in an improvement in the gain variation from 4.0 to 1.1 dB in the temperature range between -20 and +80℃.     

The Bipolar Field-Effect Transistor:Ⅶ. The Unipolar Current Mode for Analog-RF Operation(Two-MOS-Gates on Pure-Base

This paper reports the DC steady-state current-voltage and conductance-voltage characteristics of a Bipolar Field-Effect Transistor (BiFET) under the unipolar (electron) current mode of operation, with bipolar (elec-tron and hole) charge distributions considered. The model BiFET example presented has two MOS-gates on the two surfaces of a thin pure silicon base layer with electron and hole contacts on both edges of the thin base. The hole contacts on both edges of the thin pure base layer are grounded to give zero hole current. This 1-transistor analog-RF Basic Building Block nMOS amplifier circuit, operated in the unipolar current mode, complements the 1-transistor digital Basic Build Block CMOS voltage inverter circuit, operated in the bipolar-current mode just presented by us.     

Location of defective cells in HBT power amplifier arrays using IR emission microscopy

Single cell electric short failure mode of HBT power amplifier is presented with a discussion of its failure signature and mechanism. HBTs with low breakdown voltage of the base–collector junction are studied with an I–V curve tracer. Several controlled experiments were conducted in an effort to duplicate the failure signature and identify the root cause of the short failure. An infrared photoemission microscopy technique is demonstrated to be an efficient method to quickly locate a single weak HBT cell from the large parallel HBT transistor cell array that comprises the power amplifier output stage. Methods to estimate and reduce the failure rate are discussed.