In situ integrated tuner approach for load-pull measurement of Si/SiGe:C HBT at 200 GHz

Issam Hasnaoui (1) , Alexandre Pottrain (2) , Thomas Lacave (2) , Pascal Chevalier (2) , Daniel Gloria (2) , Christophe Gaquière (1)

1 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
2 ST-CROLLES - STMicroelectronics [Crolles]

Load impedance variations were obtained using an innovative integrated tuner at G-band. The 200 GHz load-pull measurements on a silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) are presented. First, the linearity of the integrated tuner is checked. Then, the main load-pull characteristics are extracted from a 0.13 × 3 μm2 emitter area SiGe HBT. The aim of this study is to provide a solution to avoid losses related to probes and commercial tuners. Thereby, from design to measurements, power setup architecture, calibration and performances at 200 GHz are performed in a non-50 Ω environment. Finally, comparisons between measurements and simulation from a high current model (HICUM) show good agreement, demonstrating the capability of the measurement approach.

Issam Hasnaoui, Alexandre Pottrain, Thomas Lacave, Pascal Chevalier, Daniel Gloria, et al.. In situ integrated tuner approach for load-pull measurement of Si/SiGe:C HBT at 200 GHz. Electronics Letters, 2014, 50, pp.1070-1072. ⟨10.1049/el.2014.0186⟩. ⟨hal-01055077⟩