1999 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters
Volume 9 Number 11, November 1999

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

Reliability and Efficiency Aspects of Harmonic-Control Amplifiers

Bernhard Ingruber, Member, IEEE

Page 464.

Abstract:

Reverse gate current flowing through a power device of a harmonic control microwave amplifier reduces its power-added efficiency (PAE) and its reliability. This study reports on theoretical analysis and measurement results of the breakdown behavior of a GaAs MESFET at class F and half sinusoidally driven harmonic control amplifier (hHCA) operation. In a class F amplifier reverse gate current is observed in power saturation and PAE decreases with increasing drain supply voltage. On the other hand, in an hHCA any reverse gate stress is avoided due to the reduction of input voltage swing. This improves not only PAE, but also reliability.

References

  1. T. A. Winslow and R. J. Trew, "An investigation of efficiency limiting mechanisms in GaAs MESFET amplifiers," in Proc. 22nd European Microwave Conf., 1992, pp. 1195-1200.
  2. S. H. Wemple, W. C. Niehaus, H. M. Cox, J. V. Dilorenzo, and W. O. Schlosser, "Control of gate-drain avalanche in GaAs MESFET's," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 27, pp. 1013-1018, June 1980.
  3. W. R. Frensley, "Power-limiting breakdown effects in GaAs MESFET's," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 28, pp. 962-970, Aug. 1981.
  4. T. A. Winslow and R. J. Trew, "Principles of large-signal MESFET operation," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 42, pp. 935-942, June 1994.
  5. T. Sonoda, S. Sakamoto, N. Kasai, M. Yamanouchi, S. Takamiya, and Y. Kashimoto, "High-efficiency and high reliable 20 W GaAs power field-effect transistor in C band," Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 31, pp. 2374-2381, Aug. 1992.
  6. H. Hasegawa, K. Katsukawa, T. Itoh, T. Noguchi, and Y. Kaneko, "High reliability power GaAs MESFET under RF overdrive condition," in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., Atlanta, GA, 1993, pp. 289-292.
  7. S. Kashiwagi, S. Takase, T. Usui, and T. Ohono, "Reliability of high frequency high power GaAs MESFET's," in Proc. 25th Annu. Int. Reliability Pysics Symp., New York, NY, 1987, pp. 97-101.
  8. K. J. Russel and J. K. Dhiman, "Power GaAs FET RF life test using temperature-compensated electrical stressing," in Proc. 24th Annu. Int. Reliability Pysics Symp., New York, NY, 1986, pp. 150-156.
  9. K. A. Chistianson, J. A. Roussos, and W. T. Anderson, "Accelerated life testing and failure analysis of single stage MMIC amplifiers," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 41, pp. 1435-1443, Aug. 1994.
  10. J. L. B. Walker, High-Power GaAs FET Amplifiers.Boston, MA: Artech House, 1993.
  11. B. Ingruber, W. Pritzl, D. Smely, M. Wachutka, and G. Magerl, "High-efficiency harmonic-control amplifier," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 46, pp. 857-862, June 1998.