Title :
An Investigation of the Large-Signal RF Safe-Operating-Area on Aggressively-Biased Cascode SiGe HBTs for Power Amplifier Applications
Author :
Grens, Curtis M. ; Cheng, Peng ; Cressler, John D.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA
Abstract :
This paper presents analysis of RF safe-operating- area of aggressively-biased cascode SiGe HBT power amplifier cores under large-signal operating conditions. It is demonstrated that as VC and |ZL| increase, the RF power threshold to cause catastrophic device failure is reduced. Comparisons between calculated results and measured data show excellent agreement.
Keywords :
Ge-Si alloys; heterojunction bipolar transistors; power amplifiers; RF power; SiGe; aggressively-biased cascode SiGe HBTs; large-signal RF safe-operating-area; power amplifier applications; Breakdown voltage; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Power amplifiers; Power engineering and energy; Power generation; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Silicon germanium; Virtual colonoscopy;
Conference_Titel :
Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, 2009. SiRF '09. IEEE Topical Meeting on
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3940-9
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2831-1
DOI :
10.1109/SMIC.2009.4770543