This paper describes, for the first time, an experimental study on the layout design considerations of GaAs HBT MMIC switchable-amplifier-chain-based power amplifiers (SWPAs) for CDMA handsets. The transient response of the quiescent current and output power (Pout) in GaAs HBT power amplifiers that consist of a main chain and a sub-chain is often affected by a thermal coupling between power stages and their bias circuits in the same chain or a thermal coupling between power stages and/or their bias circuits in different chains. In particular, excessively strong thermal coupling inside the MMIC SWPA causes failure in 3GPP-compliant inner loop power control tests. An experimental study reveals that both the preheating in the main/sub-chains and appropriate thermal coupling inside the main chain are very effective in reducing the turn-on delay for the two-parallel-amplifier-chain topology; for example, i) the sub-power stage is arranged near the main power stage, ii) the sub-driver stage is placed near the main driver stage and iii) the main driver bias circuit is placed near the main power stage and the sub-power stage. The SWPA operating in Band 9 (1749.9 to 1784.9 MHz), which was designed and fabricated from the foregoing considerations, shows a remarkable improvement in the Pout turn-on delay: a reduced power level error of 0.74 dB from turn-off to turn-on in the sub-amplifier chain and a reduced power level error of over 0.30 dB from turn-off to turn-on in the main amplifier chain. The main RF power measurements conducted with a 3.4-V supply voltage and a Band 9 WCDMA HSDPA modulated signal are as follows. The SWPA delivers a Pout of 28.5 dBm, a power gain (Gp) of 28 dB, and a PAE of 39% while restricting the ACLR1 to less than -40 dBc in the main amplifier chain. In the sub-amplifier chain, 17 dBm of Pout, 23.5 dB of Gp, and 27% of PAE are obtained at the same ACLR1 level.

A microwave waveform measurement system below 18 GHz was developed and verified with a conventional RF measurement. The current and voltage RF waveforms of AlGaAs HBTs at the fundamental frequency of 1 GHz were directly measured with the system. A new direct method of sweeping and measuring dynamic RF load lines is proposed to measure the operating limits of the device. The maximum operating region was experimentally investigated with this method. The limits with a small input power are found to come from thermal runaway and the avalanche breakdown of the device. With a large input power, the HBT was found to operate beyond the DC limit of thermal runaway. The base ballasting resistance was also found to enhance large signal operating limits beyond those expected from the conventional DC theory.

A GSM900/DCS1800 dual-band AlGaAs/GaAs HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) power amplifier has been developed. It includes power amplifiers for GSM900 and DCS1800, constant voltage bias circuits and a d. c. switch. In order to achieve high efficiency, the outside-base/center-via-hole layout is applied to the final-stage HBT of the MMIC amplifier. The layout can realize uniform output load impedance and thermal distribution of each HBT finger. The developed MMIC amplifier could provided output power of 34.5 dBm and power-added efficiency of 53.4% for GSM900, and output power of 32.0 dBm and power-added efficiency of 41.8% for DCS1800.

We present a high performance AlGaAs/GaAs power HBT with very low thermal resistance for digital cellular phones. Device structure with emitter air-bridge is utilized and device layout is optimized to reduce thermal resistance based on three-dimensional thermal flow analysis, and in spite of a rather thick substrate (100 µm), which achieved a low thermal resistance of 23/W for a multi-finger (440 µm240 fingers) HBT. This 40 finger HBT achieved power added efficiency (PAE) of over 53%, 29.1 dBm output power (Pout) and high associated gain (Ga) of 13.5 dB with 50 kHz adjacent channel leakage power (Padj) of less than -48 dBc under a 948 MHz π/4-shifted QPSK modulation with 3.4 V emitter-collector voltage. We also investigated the difference of RF performance between two bias modes (constant base voltage and current), and found which mode is adequate for each stage in several stage power amplifier for the first time.

This paper describes two different types of GaAs-HBT compatible, base-collector diode 0/20-dB step attenuators--diode-linearizer type and harmonics-trap type--for 3.5-GHz-band wireless applications. The two attenuators use an AC-coupled, stacked type diode switch topology featuring high power handling capability with low bias current operation. Compared to a conventional diode switch topology, this topology can improve the capability of more than 6 dB with the same bias current. In addition, successful incorporation of a shunt diode linearizer and second- and third-harmonic traps into the attenuators gives the IM3 distortion improvement of more than 7 dB in the high power ranging from 16 dBm to 18 dBm even in the 20-dB attenuation mode when IM3 distortion levels are basically easy to degrade. Measurement results show that both the attenuators are capable of delivering power handling capability (P0.2 dB) of more than 18 dBm with IM3 levels of less than -35 dBc at an 18-dBm input power while drawing low bias currents of 3.8 mA and 6.8 mA in the thru and attenuation modes from 0/5-V complementary supplies. Measured insertion losses of the linearizer-type and harmonics-trap type attenuators in the thru mode are as low as 1.4 dB and 2.5 dB, respectively.

This paper describes a 3.5 V operation InGaP HBT MMIC power amplifier module for use in GSM/EDGE dual-mode, 900/1800/1900 MHz triple band handset applications. Conventional GSM amplifiers have a high linear gain of 40 dB or more to realize efficiency operation in large gain compression state exceeding at least 5 dB. On the other hand, an EDGE amplifier needs a linear operation to prevent signal distortion. This means that a high linear gain amplifier cannot be applied to the EDGE amplifier, because the high gain leads to the high noise power in the receive band (Rx-noise). In order to solve this problem, we have changed the linear gain of the amplifier between GSM and EDGE mode. In EDGE mode, the stage number of the amplifier changes from three to two. To reduce a high gain, the first stage transistors in the amplifier is bypassed through the diode switches. This newly proposed bypass circuit enables a high gain in GSM mode and a low gain in EDGE, thus allowing the amplifier to operate with high efficiency in both modes while satisfying the Rx-noise specification. In conclusion, with diode switches and a band select switch built on the MMIC, the module delivers a Pout of 35.5 dBm and a PAE of about 50% for GSM900, a 33.4 dBm Pout and a 45% PAE for GSM1800/1900. While satisfying an error vector magnitude (EVM) of less than 4% and a receive-band noise power of less than -85 dBm/100 kHz, the module also delivers a 29.5 dBm Pout and a PAE of over 25% for EDGE900, a 28.5 dBm Pout and a PAE of over 25% for EDGE1800/1900.