Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Cambridge, USA, July 58, 2010

381

The RF I-V Curve for PHEMT through the Small Signal

S-parameter Extraction Method
C. I. Lee, W. C. Lin, Y. T. Lee, and Y. T. Lin
Microwave Circuit and Device Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstract In this paper, the rf (radio frequency) I-V (current-voltage) curve and its equivalent
circuit for a 0.15 m gate length GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) pHEMT (pseudomorphic High Electron
Mobility Transistors) with four fingers up to 26 GHz is presented for the first time. The traditional
dc I-V curve obtained by dc measurement was unable to provide sufficient information. In this
paper, the rf I-V curve was determined by high-frequency measurement and each element of the
equivalent circuit was extracted directly using the measured S-parameters. Through the above
measurement and mathematical calculation, the rf I-V curve has been established by integrating
the extracted element gm and gds . It can be observed that the knee voltages in dc and rf I-V
curve are different. Due to the surface state effect and slow deep level traps surface state effect,
the rf I-V curve shows the higher transconductance than the dc I-V curve. Furthermore, under
high drain-source bias conditions, the hot carrier effect observed in the rf I-V curve is weaker than
the dc I-V curve. The above phenomena explain the significant difference between the rf and
dc I-V curve. The rf I-V curve does reveal the high-frequency characteristics of the transistor.
The information from the rf I-V curve will provide the circuit designers to predict the transistor
performance more precisely.
1. INTRODUCTION

With the development of wireless communication technology, high-frequency integrated circuit

design will be more important. For this reason, to predict the high-frequency characteristics of
the device is the major agenda. In recent years, to model the characteristics of the transistors
under static or large signal condition is an important topic, and many research efforts focus on the
development of different kinds of small signal and large signal models [1]. Some models demonstrate
great prediction about output performance and the nonlinearity characteristics and also show the
agreement of the I-V curve between the model and dc measurement. It is notable that even the
model can predict the performance but still a controversial issue needs to be clarified. The I-V
curve in the dc situation would not be the same as in high-frequency situation. In this paper,
we demonstrate the difference between the I-V curve measured under the dc condition and the rf
I-V curve implemented by high-frequency measurement. In addition, the reasons for the difference
between these two conditions will be explained in the following section.
pHEMTs have excellent noise characteristics and great power performance, and it is more suitable for front-end circuits for the wireless communication system design. According to the application of the high-frequency integrated circuit design, this work emphasizes the high-frequency
characteristics of the pHEMTs. The traditional current-voltage curve obtained by dc measurement was unable to provide sufficient high-frequency performance information. In this paper, the
rf I-V curve of pHEMTs was determined by high-frequency measurement for the first time, and
each element of the equivalent circuit was extracted directly using the measured high-frequency
S-parameters. Through the above measurement and mathematical calculation, the rf I-V curve
has been established by integrating the extracted equivalent circuit element gm and gds . It is useful
to determine the high-frequency characteristics of the device for circuit design.
2. DETERMINATION OF SMALL-SIGNAL EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT PARAMETERS
AND VERIFICATION

The equivalent circuit parameters can be extracted by biasing the device in cold-device, pinch-off
and active region. To eliminate the effect caused by pad and signal interconnect lines to obtain the
device performance, a two step de-embedding method [2] was used to accomplish the de-embedding
process. Its equivalent small signal model can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic parts. The
extrinsic element (resistance and inductance) value can be extracted under the cold condition [3].
Similarly, the extraction of the extrinsic parasitic capacitance could be done by means of biasing the transistor slightly below the pinch-off condition. After eliminating the series extrinsic
inductance and resistance, the parasitic capacitance can also be determined [4].

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382

The completed equivalent circuit model of the GaAs pHEMT is shown in [3]. To analyze
the intrinsic elements, the transistor was biased in the active region by the utilization of the deembedding process to eliminate the extrinsic parasitic elements [5]. In accordance with the above
steps, we can obtain each intrinsic Y -parameters of the device at different bias voltages. Through
the mathematical analysis described in [6], the intrinsic element values can be extracted. Therefore,
all the element of the equivalent circuit have been determined, and the extracted element values
are listed in Table 1.
Table 1: The element values of the equivalent circuit of GaAs pHEMT biased at Vgs = 0.5 V and Vds = 2 V.
Element
Value

Lg

Ld

Ls

Rg

Rd

Rs

Cpg

Cpd

Cgs

Cgd

Cds

Rds

Ri

gm

Tau

57.41 1.69 3.63 1.69

1.21
1.19 6.36 18.61 0.41 30.91 86.68 97.05 0.02 240 1.01
(pH) (pH) (pH) (Ohm) (Ohm) (Ohm) (fF) (fF) (pF) (fF) (fF) (Ohm) (Ohm) (mS) (pSec)

The transistor dependence current source at drain terminal is a nonlinear source, and its current characteristics depends on Vgs (gate-source) and Vds (drain-source) bias voltage. The bias
dependent intrinsic elements extracted from high-frequency measurement are determined. The rf
output conductances (gds ) decrease with the increasing of drain voltage as shown in Figure 1. And
the transconductances (gm ) relate to the transfer characteristics as shown in Figure 2. Another
nonlinear source of the transistor is nonlinear input impedance caused by the nonlinear variation of
the capacitance Cgs and Cgd are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Through the mathematical calculations
and integration of the extracted intrinsic elements, transconductances and output conductances,
the currents characteristics corresponding to each bias voltage can be evaluated and form the rf I-V
curve. Finally, the performance and I-V characteristics of the transistors under the high-frequency
operation can be obtained.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT ANALYSIS

In this paper, the GaAs based pHEMTs 0.15 m process is provided by WIN Semiconductors
Corporation. The device has four fingers and its total gate width is 4 100 m. The S-parameters
were obtained by on wafer measurement through the Cascade microwave probe and Agilent E8364B
network analyzer. The gate-source was biased from 1 V to 0 V with a step of 0.1 V and drainsource from 0 V to 5 V with a step of 0.25 V. The measurement frequency ranges from 1 GHz to
26 GHz.
The model and measured S-parameter have excellent agreement as shown in Figure 5. From the
experimental results, the significant difference between the rf I-V curve implemented by the integration and the traditional dc I-V curve obtained by dc measurement can be found in Figure 6. When
the transistors operate in the high-frequency region, the output characteristics and currents are significantly higher. The knee voltages relating to the gain compression phenomenon [7] are different
in the dc and rf I-V curve. As the result of the slow deep level traps [8] and surface state effect [9],
the frequency dispersion behavior [10] makes the rf I-V curve show higher transconductances and
currents on output characteristics. Moreover, the hot carrier effect observed in the rf I-V curve
vg=0
vg=0.1
vg=0.2
vg=0.3
vg=0.4
vg=0.5
vg=0.6
vg=0.7
vg=0.8
vg=0.9
vg=1.0

0.6

gds (S)

0.5
0.4
0.3

vd=0
vd=0.25
vd=0.5
vd=0.75
vd=1
vd=1.25
vd=1.5
vd=1.75
vd=2
vd=2.25
vd=2.5
vd=2.75
vd=3
vd=3.25
vd=3.5
vd=3.75
vd=4
vd=4.25
vd=4.5
vd=4.75
vd=5

0.25

0.20

gm (S)

0.7

0.15

0.10

0.2
0.05

0.1
0.00

0.0
0

Vds (Volt)

Figure 1: The relation between output conductances

and drain voltage as a function of gate voltage.

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

Vgs (Volt)

Figure 2: The relation between transconductances

and gate voltage as a function of drain voltage.

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Cambridge, USA, July 58, 2010

383

is relatively weaker than in the dc I-V curve when biasing the transistor under high drain-source
conditions. In addition, during the high-frequency operation, the self-heating effect [11] is not noticeable because this phenomenon appears only in the low-frequency region not in high-frequency
measurement. In this work, we observe that the rf I-V curve has higher currents than dc I-V
curve at the same drain-source bias. According to the above results and explanations, the obtained
high-frequency characteristics of transistors from rf I-V curve is suitable for the application of the
transistors in the high-frequency circuit design.

0.20
0.60
0.55

0.16

Cgs (pF)

0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25

Cgd (pF)

vg=0
vg=0.1
vg=0.2
vg=0.3
vg=0.4
vg=0.5
vg=0.6
vg=0.7
vg=0.8
vg=0.9
vg=1.0

0.50

vg=0
vg=0.1
vg=0.2
vg=0.3
vg=0.4
vg=0.5
vg=0.6
vg=0.7
vg=0.8
vg=0.9
vg=1.0

0.12

0.08

0.04

0.20
0.15

0.00
0

Vds (Volt)

Vds (Volt)

Figure 3: The relation between intrinsic gate-source

capacitance and drain voltage as a function of gate
voltage.

Figure 4: The relation between intrinsic gate-drain

capacitance and drain voltage as a function of gate
voltage.

24

S21_easured
S21_model

22
20

S-parameter

S21 (dB)

18
16
14
12

S11
S22

10
8
6

S12
0

10

15

20

25

Frequency (GHz)

freq (1.000 GHz to 26.00 GHz)

(a)

(b)

Figure 5: Comparison between measured (open circles) and modeled (solid line) S-parameter at Vds = 2 V,
Vgs = 0.5 V, and the frequency range from 1 GHz to 26 GHz. (a) S21 (b) S11 , S12 and S22 .
0.3

(RF) vgs=1
(RF) vgs=0.9
(RF) vgs=0.8
(RF) vgs=0.7
(RF) vgs=0.6
(RF) vgs=0.5
(RF) vgs=0.4
(RF) vgs=0.3
(RF) vgs=0.2
(RF) vgs=0.1
(RF) vgs=0
(DC) vgs=1
(DC) vgs=0.9
(DC) vgs=0.8
(DC) vgs=0.7
(DC) vgs=0.6
(DC) vgs=0.5
(DC) vgs=0.4
(DC) vgs=0.3
(DC) vgs=0.2
(DC) vgs=0.1
(DC) vgs=0

Ids (A)

0.2

0.1

0.0

Vds (Volt)

Figure 6: The measured dc I-V curves and rf I-V curves for 100 4 0.15 m pHEMT transistor.

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PIERS Proceedings, Cambridge, USA, July 58, 2010

4. CONCLUSION

In this study, the small-signal model of GaAs pHEMTs and its completed rf I-V curve calculated
from the high-frequency measurement data are demonstrated for the first time, and the obtained
rf I-V curve can accurately describe the high-frequency characteristics of the transistors. For the
front-end circuits of wireless communication systems, the selection of the bias point has a key
influence on the performance of the power amplifiers, and its operation mode also depends on
transistor bias voltage. The information from the rf I-V curve will provide circuit designers a more
accurate way to select the appropriate bias point for the high-frequency operation and then bias
the transistor in the suitable operation region. The rf I-V curve provides more accurate information
than the dc I-V curve to describe the transistor high-frequency characteristics and can be applied
to the high-frequency integrated circuit design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank National Chip Implementation Center (CIC) for chip fabrication
and the Wireless Communication Antenna Research Center for the support. This work is also
supported in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan, R.O.C. under Grant NSC98-2221-E110-032-MY2 and under Grant NSC97-2221-E-110-036-MY3.
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