2000 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 Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume 48 Number 5, May 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

A Robust Integrated Multibias Parameter-Extraction Method for MESFET and HEMT Models

Cornell van Niekerk, Member, IEEE Petrie Meyer, Member, IEEE Dominique M. M.-P. Schreurs, Member, IEEE and Peter B. Winson Member, IEEE

Page 777.

Abstract:

An integrated multibias extraction technique for MESFET and high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) models is presented in this paper. The technique uses s-parameters measured at various bias points in the active region to construct one optimization problem, of which the vector of unknowns contains a set of bias-dependent elements for each bias point and one set of bias-independent elements. This problem is solved by an extremely robust decomposition-based optimizer, which splits the problem into N subproblems, N being the number of unknowns. The optimizer consistently converges to the same solution from a wide range of randomly chosen starting values. No assumptions are made concerning the layout of the device or the bias dependencies of the intrinsic model elements. It is shown that there is a convergence in the values of the model elements and a decrease in the extraction uncertainty as the number of bias points in the extraction is increased. Robustness tests using 100 extractions, each using a different set of random starting values, are performed on measured s-parameters of a MESFET and pseudomorphic HEMT device. Results indicate that the extracted parameters typically vary by less than 1%. Extractions with up to 48 bias points were performed successfully, leading to the simultaneous determination of 342 model elements.

References

  1. A. Eskandarian and S. Weinreb, "A note on experimental determination of small-signal equivalent circuit of millimeter-wave FETs", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 41, pp.  159-162, Jan.  1993 .
  2. M. Berroth and R. Bosch, "Broad-band determination of the FET small-signal equivalent circuit", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 38, pp.  891-895, July  1990.
  3. N. Rorsman, M. Garcia, C. Karlsson and H. Zirath, "Accurate small-signal modeling of HFET's for millimeter-wave applications", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 44, pp.  432-437, Mar.  1996.
  4. F. D. King, P. Winson, A. D. Snider, L. Dunleavy and D. P. Levinson, "Math methods in transistor modeling: Condition numbers for parameter extraction", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 46, pp.  1313-1314, Sept.  1998.
  5. F. Lin and G. Kompa, "FET model parameter extraction based on optimization with multiplane data-fitting and bidirectional search-A new concept", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 42, pp.  1114-1121, July  1994.
  6. K. Shirakawa, H. Oikawa, T. Shimura, Y. Kawasaki, Y. Ohashi and T. Saito, "An approach to determining an equivalent circuit for HEMT's", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43, pp.  499-503, Mar.  1995.
  7. C. van Niekerk and P. Meyer, "Performance and limitations of decomposition-based parameter-extraction procedures for FET small-signal models", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 46, pp.  1620-1627, Nov.  1998 .
  8. W. R. Curtice and R. L. Camisa, "Self-consistent GaAs FET models for amplifier design and device diagnostics", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-32, Dec.  1984.
  9. J. W. Bandler and S. H. Chen, "Microwave device modeling using efficient l1 optimization: A novel approach", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-34, pp.  1282-1292, Dec.   1986.
  10. S. Lee, "Fast and efficient extraction of HBT model parameters using multibias S -parameter sets", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 44, pp.  1499-1502, Aug.  1996 .
  11. Q. Cai, J. Gerber, U. L. Rohde and T. Daniel, "HBT high-frequency modeling and integrated parameter extraction", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 45, pp.  2493-2501, Dec.  1997.
  12. A. Ghazinour and R. H. Jansen, "Robust, model-independent generation of intrinsic characteristics and multi-bias parameter extraction for MESFET's/HEMT's", in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., 1998, pp.  149-152. 
  13. A. D. Patterson, V. F. Fusco, J. J. McKeown and J. A. C. Stewart, "A systematic optimization strategy for microwave device modeling", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 41, pp.  395-405, Mar.  1993.
  14. P. H. Ladbrooke, MMIC Design: GaAs FET's and HEMT's, Norwood, MA: Artech House, 1989.
  15. H. Kondoh, "An accurate FET modeling from measured S -parameters", in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig. , 1986, pp.  377-380. 
  16. J. W. Bandler and Q.-J. Zhang, "An automatic decomposition approach to optimization of large microwave systems", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-35, pp.  1231-1239, Dec.  1987.
  17. C. van Niekerk and P. Meyer, "A new approach for the extraction of an FET equivalent circuit from measured S -parameters", Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 11, no. 5, pp.  281-284, Apr.  1996.
  18. C. van Niekerk, "Multi-bias decomposition-based optimization for the extraction of small-signal GaAs FET models", Ph.D. disseration, Dept. Elect. Electron. Eng., Univ. Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1999.
  19. Y. Baeyens, T. Skrabka, M. van Hove, W. De Raedt, B. Nauwelaers and M. Van Rossum, "Performance of 0.2 µ m planar doped pseudomorphic and lattice matched HEMT's on GaAs and InP", in Proc. 23rd European Solid-State Device Res. Conf., 1993, pp.  753-756. 
  20. D. Schreurs, "Measurement Based Modeling of Heterojunction Field-Effect Devices for Non-Linear Microwave Circuit Design", Ph.D. disseration, Dept. Elektrotech. (ESAT), Catholic Univ. Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium, 1997.
  21. T. Gonzáles and D. Pardo, "Monte Carlo determination of the intrinsic small-signal equivalent circuit of MESFET's", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 42, pp.  605-611, Apr.  1995.
  22. M. Novotny and G. Kompa, "Unique and physically meaningful extraction of the bias-dependent series resistors of a 0.15-µ m pHEMT demands extremely broad-band and highly accurate measurements", in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig., 1996, pp.  1715-1718. 
  23. G. L. Bilbro, M. B. Steer, R. J. Trew, C. R. Chang and S. G. Skaggs, "Extraction of the parameters of equivalent circuits of microwave transistors using tree annealing", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 38, pp.  1711-1718, Nov.  1990.
  24. R. Tayrani, J. E. Gerber, T. Daniel, R. S. Pengelly and U. L. Rohde, "A new and reliable direct parasitic extraction method for MESFET's and HEMT's", in 23rd European Microwave Conf., 1993, pp.  451-453. 
  25. R. Arnholt and S. Swirhun, "Measurement and analysis of GaAs MESFET parasitic capacitances", IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 39, pp.  1247-1251, July  1991.