Determination of HBT thermal resistance using pulsed I-V measurements

Author

McIntosh, Paul M. ; Staniforth, Michael J. ; Snowden, Christopher M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Electr. Eng., Leeds Univ., UK

fYear

1996

fDate

25-26 Nov 1996

Firstpage

120

Lastpage

125

Abstract

This paper describes the determination of HBT thermal resistance using a pulsed I-V measurement system. Two measurements are used to determine the thermal resistance (R_TH), an isothermal measurement of the base-emitter voltage (V_BE) and emitter current (I_C) using the pulsed I-V system over a range of elevated temperatures and a non-isothermal measurement of V_BE and I_C over a range of collector-emitter voltages (V_CE). The results of both measurements are used to determine values of power dissipation against device temperature from which R_TH can be found. The measurement of a power HBT has been carried out and the value of R_TH has been found to vary from 79°C/W at low power levels to 108°C/W at high power levels. This variation is a result of the change in the thermal conductivity of GaAs and has been confirmed by comparison with a theoretical model for the variation in the thermal conductivity of GaAs

Keywords

heterojunction bipolar transistors; microwave bipolar transistors; microwave power transistors; power bipolar transistors; thermal conductivity; thermal resistance; thermal resistance measurement; GaAs; HBT thermal resistance; base-emitter voltage; device temperature; elevated temperatures; emitter current; isothermal measurement; nonisothermal measurement; power HBT; power dissipation; pulsed I-V measurements; thermal conductivity; Current measurement; Electrical resistance measurement; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Isothermal processes; Power measurement; Pulse measurements; Thermal conductivity; Thermal resistance; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

High Performance Electron Devices for Microwave and Optoelectronic Applications Workshop, 1996. EDMO

Conference_Location

Leeds

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3130-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EDMO.1996.575813

Filename

575813