An active pulsed RF and pulsed DC load-pull system for the characterization of HBT power amplifiers used in coherent radar and communication systems

Author

Arnaud, Caroline ; Basataud, D. ; Nebus, Jean-Michel ; Teyssier, Jean-Pierre ; Villotte, Jean-Pierre ; Floriot, Didier

Author_Institution

Res. Inst. of Microwave & Opt. Commun., Limoges, France

Volume

48

Issue

12

fYear

2000

fDate

12/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2625

Lastpage

2629

Abstract

This paper presents a new automated and vector error-corrected active load-pull system allowing the characterization of microwave power transistors under coherent pulsed RF and pulsed DC operating conditions. In this paper, the use of this system is focused on the characterization of a 240-μm² GaInP-GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) (Thomson CSP-LCR, Orsay, France). On one hand, source and load-pull measurements of such a transistor are reported for different pulsewidths. On the other hand, nonlinear simulations based on an electrothermal model of an HBT have been performed and are compared with experiments. Power variations and RF carrier phase shift within the pulse versus input power and junction temperature of the transistor are shown

Keywords

UHF measurement; UHF power amplifiers; automatic test equipment; circuit testing; equivalent circuits; error correction; heterojunction bipolar transistors; microwave bipolar transistors; microwave measurement; microwave power amplifiers; microwave power transistors; network analysers; power bipolar transistors; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device models; GaInP-GaAs; HBT power amplifiers; RF carrier phase shift; Thomson CSP-LCR device; VNA; active pulsed RF load-pull system; amplifier characterization; automated system; coherent communication systems; coherent pulsed RF operating conditions; coherent radar systems; electrothermal model; heterojunction bipolar transistor; input power; junction temperature; microwave power transistors; nonlinear simulations; power variations; pulsed DC load-pull system; pulsed DC operating conditions; vector error-corrected system; Circuits; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Optical amplifiers; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse measurements; Pulse modulation; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/22.899022

Filename

899022