110 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON

ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. ED-21, NO. 1, JANUARY 1974

Implication of Transistolr Frequency Dependence on

Intermodulation Distortion
€3. c. POON

Abslract-An analysis is presented forthird-order and seccmd- I

order nonlinear distortion as a function of frequency for a transjstor
biased in the common-emitter configuration. It is found thal,at
high frequency, it is the curvature in the loaded cutoff frequmcy :v cc
versus collector current curve that determines the degree of irter-
modulation distortion. Design proposals fqr obtaining linear cutoff
frequency curves (i.e., small third-order distortion) will be discussed.

T HIRD-ORDER distortion is acriticalproblem

solid-statelong-haulcommunication
smallerthird-orderdistortiun,
in a
system.With a
a wider bandwidth for
Fig. 1. External circuit constraints of the transistor.

transmission can
be
achieved. Most previolls papers current gain, collector varactor, and emitter exponential
emphasized minimizing third-order distortion through nonlinearities are int'rinsicallyincluded. The frequency
optimizingexternal
circuits,
biasing
conditions, and dependenceenters in the analysis through the time de-
cascadeconfigurations [1],[2], Minimizing the cross pendence of Q T . For this,achargecontrol [SI type of
modulation of a single transistor under AGC conditions relation is used, i.e.,
has also been investigated [3]. This paper is concemed
withthedistortion performance of a transistor urlder
moderately high collector bias (Le., 15 V ) , and discusses
improvementsobtainablethroughproperly redesiglling which states that the rate of increase of QT with respect
thetransistor doping profile inthe epitaxial collector to time is given by the difference of the externalbase
region. current .Tp andthetotal recombination rate h inthe
transistor. Considering theinput circuitconstraint, (4)
I. ANALYTICAL EXPRESSIONS can be written as
The transistor is embedded in a circuit with resirhive
loading in the input and the output as shown in Fig. 1
(this circuitis used to simulate the actual situation.in
which the collector is kept a t a de bias of (VCC- R t l c ) A small-signal version of ( 5 ) is
and is acloaded with RL). Keeping the output cil'cuit
constraint fixed, a small change in input voltage 6v, will
inducesmallchangesinbaseemittervoltage 6Vbe, re-
combination rate Sh, collector current Si,, and total stored
Substituting (1) and (2) into (6) , we obtain
charge SQT of the transistors.Thus, 6 V b e , 6h, and ai,
can be expanded in a power series in ~ Q T :
8Vbe = +
-k a z 6 Q ~ ~ a36Q~' (1)
6h = h16QT + h 6 Q-k~ ~ h36Q~' (2)
6i, = i18QT i26Q~~ + i36Q~'. (3)
The SENIPAC program [4] (which solves the Poisson and By setting
the continuity equations for agivendoping profile and
outputloading) is used to generate the electrical :har-
6V, = x cos ut, (8)
acteristjcs of the transistor [SI fromwhich the eoef- (7) canbe solved for ~ Q Tby a pert'urbationtechnique
ficients a, h, and i (callednonlinearcoefficients) C I , be ~ and can be expressed as
calculated. Byperformingthe calculationinsuaha
manner, all the nonlinearities of the transistor, i.e.,
~ Q T= A1X COS ( w t + pi) + AzX2 COS ( 2 w t -k cpz)

Manuscript received October 18, 1972.

+ A3xa cos ( 3 w t + p3) (9)
The author is with Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. 07'2'74. where AI, A*, AS, p1, 9 2 , and pa are functions of frequency.
POON:INTERMODULATION DISTORTION 111

The expression for SQT in (9) can be substituted into (3) Equations (18) and (19) indicate that MZEand M ~ Eonly
:
such that Xic can be expressed as dependon i,, &, and i3.Physicalinterpretations of il,
&, and i3 will serve as gooddesign guidelines. From
si, = B~COS + e,) + B~ COS (2wt + ez) the definition of i,,
+ B3 COS (3d + 0,) (10)
where B1,Bz, B3, €4,&, and O3 are also functions of fre-
quency. The figures of merit for second- and third-order
distortion are given by where the argument RL indicates that f T (or the low-fre-
quency approximation [SI t o unity current gain f ~ is) the
2nd harmonic output power cutoff frequency of the transistorwhen theoutputis
M z E = 1010glo
fundamental output power (1 mW) loaded with R L . Similarly, i z is given by

M33 = 1010glo
3rd harmonic output power
fundamental power (1 mW)
output -> where

= - 2010g10[(~2) 1 g1 1 . (12)
UT‘ -
-1
81,
Thus, M 2 E is related to the first derivative of the ~ T ( R L )
The exact expressions for MZEand M3E in terms of the versus I , curve, i.e., the smaller the first derivative, the
nonlinear coefficients are [7] lower is M Z E . Similarly, for i 3 ,

where

UT“ = $; .1
where For the particular transistor of interest,

(14) Then
and

where This implies that third-order distortion is related to the

a = hl’ (i3hl’ - ilk3’) + 2hZ’(ilb’ - hi&) - 6i3w2 (16) second derivative of the f T ( R L ) versus I , curve, i.e., the
morelinear f T ( R L ) versus I , is, the srnaller the third-
and orderdistortion is. Assuming thatthe nonlinearityin
y = 5i3hll - 2ilh3‘ - 6zZb‘. ~T(RL is )similar to that of f ~ distortion
, can beminimized
(17) by having less base pushout effect [Q] in the transistor.
11. HIGH-FREQUENCY LIMIT Fig. 2 shows numerical calculation of U T versus I, for a
I n t h ehigh-frequency limit the expressions for M ~ and
E typicalhigh-frequency ( fT = 2 GH5) silicon transistor.
MBEreduce down to a very simple form: As the width of the epitaxial collector region is decreased,
the ~ T ( R L )curve becomes more linear. A6 the same time,
MZE( f-t a) = - 20log10 ( -[
0 3 y 3 ] (18)
the third-order distortion improves. Another example to
show the improvement of third-orderdistortiondue to
having less base pushout effect is given in Fig. 3. Here the
and epitaxial collector doping is linearly graded. Improvement
in M 3 is~plotted versus the widthof the epitaxial collector
with the gradient of the linear graded profile as a param-
eter.
112 IEEETRANSACTIONSONELECTRONDEVICES, JANUARY 1974

5.8!
5.0 -

rn
TI 4.0 -
z
” w

-
0

LT
3.0
W LL
Q 0
5.8C w
(I)
4
n
z
a 2.0 -
4 X
LT
m
0 1.0 -
f
c.
3
0
0 I 2 3 4 5 6
5.75 WIDTH OF E P I T A X I A L COLLECTOR (pl
Fig. 3. Changesin M ~ as B a function of epitaxial collector width
for different values of the gradlent XD of the doping. All the M3E’S
are calculated at I , = 100 mA and Vo, = 20.0 V with an output
loading of 50 Q.

5.7 : 1 I I 1 I
80 90 I00 I IO I20 In summaryJthispaperhas shown that third-order
COLLECTOR
CURRENT (mA)
distortion
in
common-emitter
a configuration is de-
terminedbythe degree of nonlinearity of the fT(RL)
Fig. 2. W T versus IC for different values of the width of epitarial versus I , curve of the transistor. A method for obtaining
collector region W,. All the M&s are calculated at I , = 100 mA
and Vco= 20.0 V with an output loadlng of 50 Q. a linearizedcharacteristicbygradingtheepitaxial col-
lector doping profile to minimize distortion was proposed.

Froma dimensional argument, i,

I,/Qa such that
- I,/Q and i:
ila/i3 - -12 A2
where A , is the emitter area. If A, and I , are increwed
inthesameproportionsuchthatthecurrentdensity
remains constant, then the improvement in MBEis given
by
8 M 3 ~= - 20 log,,(A,C/A,)2
where A,’ and A , are the new and original emitter mea.
Thusby doubling both A, and I,, an improvement of
M ~ ofE 12 dB is obtained.
Finally, a commentshouldbe made on thevalidity
of. theresultsthatareobtainedinthe high-frequency
limit, whereas (4) is equivalent t o a low-frequency ap-
proximation. Equation (4)is a good approximation Ithen
the operating frequency is much lower than fT. The high-
frequencylimit for third-orderdistortion is approached
when the operating frequency is of the order of h2 x of
the order of reciprocal lifetime ( l/rp.) which is the ;game
order as fT/@ where @ is the current gain. Thus the ‘nigh-
frequency limit for MaE can be approached a t frequencies
well below “f- ~ .
- ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to thank D. L. Scharfetter for many
stimulating discussions and for providing encouragement
in the course of this work.
REFERENCES
[l] S..Narayanan,“Transistor distortion analysis using Volterra
serles representation,’’ Bell Syst. Tech. J.,p. 991, 1967.
[2] -, “Intermodulationdistortion of cascaded transistors,”
IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. SC-4, pp. 97-106, June 1969.
[3] J. te Winkel and B. C. Bouma, “An investigation Into transistor
cross-modulation at VHF under AGC conditions,” IEEE Trans.
Electron Devices, vol. ED-14, pp. 374-381, July 1967.
[4] D . L. Scharfetter and H. K. Gummel, “Large-signal analysis of
a silicon Read diode oscillator,’’ I E E E Trans. Electron Devices,
vol. ED-16, pp. 64-77, Jan. 1969.
[5] H. C. Poon, “Modeling of bipolar transistor using integral
charge-control model with application to third-order distortion
studies,” IEEE Trans. ElectronDevices, vol. ED-19, pp. 719-
731, June 1972.
[6] R. Beaufoy and J. J. Sparkes, “The junction transistor as a
charge controlled device,” A T E J. (London), vol. 13, p. 310,
Oct. 1957.
[7] A detailed derivation of these expressions using Volterra series
is given in S. Narayanan and H. C. Poon, “An analysis of dis-
tortion in bipolar transistors using integral charge control model
and Volterra series,” IEEE Trans. Circuit Theory, vol. CT-20,
pp. 341-351, July 1973.
[SI H. K. Gummel, “On the definition of the cutoff frequency f ~ , ”
Proc. IEEE (Lett.) vol. 57, p. 2159, Dec. 1969.
[9] C. T. Kirk, Jr., ‘i.k theory of transistor cutoff frequency ( f ~ )
falloff at high current densities,” I R E Trans. ElectronDevices,
vol. ED-9, pp. 164-174, Mar. 1962.