Direct measurement of the optimum source impedance for minimum noise figure

Author

Ishikawa, O. ; Yagita, H. ; Tanbo, T. ; Onuma, T.

Author_Institution

Matsushita Electr. Ind. Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan

fYear

1989

fDate

13-15 June 1989

Firstpage

1183

Abstract

A novel measurement system and a method designed to measure the optimum source impedance for the minimum noise figure of an on-wafer FET have been developed using a microwave wafer probe system. The measurement system is composed of a network analyzer, a noise meter, microwave wafer probes, and coaxial switches that connect all three. The source (or load) impedance is measured continuously and the noise and gain characteristics of the transistor on the chip can be measured continuously and automatically as well. The optimum source impedance is measured by two different methods: the real-time method and the 50-short-open method. The two methods show little phase difference. This approach was used to design a low-noise MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) amplifier operating at 12 GHz.<>

Keywords

MMIC; electric impedance measurement; field effect transistors; microwave measurement; network analysers; probes; 12 GHz; 50-short-open method; MMIC; coaxial switches; gain characteristics; microwave wafer probe system; microwave wafer probes; minimum noise figure; network analyzer; noise meter; on-wafer FET; optimum source impedance; real-time method; Design methodology; Gain measurement; Impedance measurement; Integrated circuit measurements; MMICs; Microwave FETs; Microwave measurements; Noise measurement; Probes; Semiconductor device measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1989., IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Long Beach, CA, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1989.38935

Filename

38935