학술논문

RF figures-of-merit for process optimization
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices IEEE Trans. Electron Devices Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on. 51(12):2121-2128 Dec, 2004
Subject
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Bipolar analog integrated circuits
Bipolar transistors
Circuit optimization
bipolar transistors
optimization methods
technology assessment
Language
ISSN
0018-9383
1557-9646
Abstract
Today, transistor y-parameters are routinely being measured for the determination of the current-gain cut-off frequency f/sub T/ and the maximum oscillation frequency f/sub max/. In this paper, it is shown that a much wider use of y-parameter measurements can be made for the RF characterization of transistors. A method is presented to determine the small-signal behavior of actual RF circuit-blocks from the measurements of the y-parameters of the individual circuit components. This is applied to define additional RF figures-of-merit for basic building blocks of analogue and digital RF circuits. No equivalent transistor circuit or compact-model parameters are needed, which is important for giving quick feedback to process developers. This approach is illustrated on three basic RF circuit blocks using bipolar transistors.