TY - JOUR
T1 - Nonuniform RF overstress in high-power transistors and amplifiers
AU - Stopel, Alon
AU - Leibovitch, Mark
AU - Shapira, Yoran
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received November 13, 2007. This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research and in part by Prof. J. Bernstein (University of Maryland). The review of this paper was arranged by Editor M. A. Shibib. The authors are with the Department of Physical Electronics, School of Electrical Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel (e-mail: [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TED.2008.916719
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - Nonuniform light emission from power transistors at 2-3-dB compression levels has been imaged using a microscope-mounted camera. The nonuniformity depends on the device lateral geometry, load impedance, dc and radio frequency (RF) conditions, and the negative gate current, which is a result of the RF-induced impact ionization in the transistors. Numerical simulations demonstrated a nonuniform distribution of the RF overstress in the transistors under the same conditions. The simulations indicate that the nonuniformity in the light intensity may be attributed to the RF-induced voltage overstress. Therefore, the observed light emission may be used as a direct and contactless monitor of the RF-induced overstress in transistors and power amplifiers.
AB - Nonuniform light emission from power transistors at 2-3-dB compression levels has been imaged using a microscope-mounted camera. The nonuniformity depends on the device lateral geometry, load impedance, dc and radio frequency (RF) conditions, and the negative gate current, which is a result of the RF-induced impact ionization in the transistors. Numerical simulations demonstrated a nonuniform distribution of the RF overstress in the transistors under the same conditions. The simulations indicate that the nonuniformity in the light intensity may be attributed to the RF-induced voltage overstress. Therefore, the observed light emission may be used as a direct and contactless monitor of the RF-induced overstress in transistors and power amplifiers.
KW - Breakdown
KW - High-power amplifier (HPA)
KW - Impact ionization (II)
KW - Light emission
KW - Parasitic oscillations
KW - Power transistor
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41949101879&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TED.2008.916719
DO - 10.1109/TED.2008.916719
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AN - SCOPUS:41949101879
SN - 0018-9383
VL - 55
SP - 1067
EP - 1073
JO - IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
JF - IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
IS - 4
ER -