Electrothermal gate and channel breakdown model for prediction of power and efficiency in FET amplifiers

Author

Parker, Anthony E. ; Rathmell, James G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Eng., Macquarie Univ., Sydney, NSW, Australia

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Firstpage

881

Lastpage

884

Abstract

A model of gate-junction leakage and impact ionization is used to predict catastrophic junction- and avalanche-breakdown mechanisms in a FET. It is shown that low-power DC measurements can be used to characterize breakdown and that the model correctly extrapolates to regions outside the safe-operating-area. When included in a large-signal FET model with dynamic calculation of junction temperature, the output power, power-added efficiency (PAE) and peak PAE of a common-source amplifier are well predicted.

Keywords

amplifiers; avalanche breakdown; field effect transistors; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor junctions; FET amplifiers; catastrophic junction- and avalanche-breakdown mechanisms; channel breakdown model; common-source amplifier; electrothermal gate; gate-junction leakage model; impact ionization; junction temperature dynamic calculation; low-power DC measurements; power-added efficiency; Avalanche breakdown; Circuit simulation; Current measurement; Electric breakdown; Electrothermal effects; Microwave FETs; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Predictive models; Temperature; Avalanche breakdown; Electrothermal effects; Impact ionization; Microwave FET power amplifiers; Semiconductor device breakdown;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09. IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2803-8

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165838

Filename

5165838