Intermodulation mechanism and linearization of AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs

Author

Lee, Joonwoo ; Kim, Woonyum ; Kim, Youngsik ; Rho, Taemoon ; Kim, Bumman

Author_Institution

Pohang Univ. of Sci. & Technol., South Korea

Volume

45

Issue

12

fYear

1997

fDate

12/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2065

Lastpage

2072

Abstract

The intermodulation (IM) mechanism of heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) has been studied by using an analytical nonlinear equivalent circuit model and Volterra-series analysis of the model. Although the third-order IM intercept point (IP3) does not depend on the emitter parameter, it is appreciably affected by base and collector parameters and has been substantially improved by utilizing punchthrough collector structure. The measured IP3 of punchthrough collector HBTs is 31 dBm with 150-mW dc power, which is higher than that of normal collector HBTs by 3 dB. The investigation of the cancellation effects of nonlinear elements reveals that the output nonlinear current components generated by emitter-base current source and base-collector current source cancel each other almost exactly, resulting in high linear characteristics of HBTs

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Volterra series; aluminium compounds; equivalent circuits; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; intermodulation distortion; linearisation techniques; semiconductor device models; 150 mW; AlGaAs-GaAs; AlGaAs/GaAs HBT; IP3; Volterra series; analytical nonlinear equivalent circuit model; cancellation; heterojunction bipolar transistor; intermodulation; linearization; punchthrough collector; third-order IM intercept point; Circuit analysis; Circuit simulation; Computational modeling; Equivalent circuits; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Microwave technology; Nonlinear distortion; Power amplifiers; Power generation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/22.643701

Filename

643701