Title :
Reliability evaluation of class-E and class-a power amplifiers with nanoscaled CMOS technology
Author :
Lin, Wei-Cheng ; Wu, Tsung-Chien ; Tsai, Yi-Hung ; Du, Long-Jei ; King, Ya-Chin
Author_Institution :
Microelectron. Lab., Nat. Tsing-Hua Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan
fDate :
7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Circuit reliability of class-E and class-A power amplifiers is investigated based on a newly developed degradation subcircuit model. Measured degradation characteristics on the fabricated circuits agree well with the simulation predictions. Using this model, we have found that the class-E amplifier degrades faster than a class-A amplifier, due to a much higher stress level during switching. With a drastic decrease of PAE, a shorter lifetime is expected for a class-E amplifier.
Keywords :
CMOS analogue integrated circuits; integrated circuit modelling; integrated circuit reliability; nanotechnology; power amplifiers; class-A power amplifier; class-E power amplifier; nanoscaled CMOS technology; reliability evaluation; subcircuit model; Analog circuits; CMOS technology; Degradation; Hot carriers; Power amplifiers; Predictive models; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Semiconductor device modeling; Stress; Class-A amplifier; Fowler–Nordheim (FN) stress; class-E amplifier; hot-carrier(HC) stress; reliability;
Journal_Title :
Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TED.2005.850639
