Photoconductive probing and computer simulation of microwave potentials inside a SiGe MMIC

Author

David, G. ; Yang, K. ; Crites, M. ; Rieh, J.-S. ; Lu, L.H. ; Bhattacharya, P. ; Katehi, L.P.B. ; Whitaker, J.F.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

fYear

1998

fDate

18-18 Sept. 1998

Firstpage

187

Lastpage

191

Abstract

Electrical potentials inside a SiGe MMIC are measured at frequencies up to 20 GHz using a micro-machined photoconductive sampling probe and compared with values predicted using microwave CAD software. The results illustrate that this combination of simulation and in-circuit measurement technique is a powerful tool for performing diagnostics of the microwave performance of Si-based RF circuits. The methodology can be used for applications such as fault isolation and validation of device models, as well as for investigation of the sensitivity of performance to process variations.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; MMIC; circuit CAD; circuit simulation; electric potential; fault diagnosis; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit measurement; photoconducting devices; probes; semiconductor materials; 0 to 20 GHz; MMIC; SiGe; device models; diagnostics; fault isolation; in-circuit measurement technique; microwave CAD software; microwave potentials; photoconductive probing; process variation sensitivity; sampling probe; Computer simulation; Electric potential; Electric variables measurement; Frequency measurement; Germanium silicon alloys; MMICs; Microwave devices; Microwave measurements; Photoconductivity; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, 1998. Digest of Papers. 1998 Topical Meeting on

Conference_Location

Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5288-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMIC.1998.750219

Filename

750219