An empirical I‐V nonlinear model suitable for GaN FET class F PA design

This article presents an improved nonlinear IDS(VGS, VDS) model useful for modeling the experimental pulsed I-V measurement data of GaN FETs operated at large drain-source voltages. This improved IDS(VGS, VDS) model is based on the Chalmers model. The main features of the improved nonlinear IDS(VGS, VDS) model are the two analytical expressions that are incorporated to model the output conductance and the saturation voltage. The new model only requires 13 parameters easily determined from experimental pulsed I-V data. Comparison between simulated and measured data of an inverse class F PA designed with a commercial GaN FET at 1.5 GHz demonstrate that the proposed model is suitable for microwave circuit design based on GaN transistors. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:1256–1259, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25980

[1]  H. Zirath,et al.  On the large-signal modelling of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and SiC MESFETs , 2005, European Gallium Arsenide and Other Semiconductor Application Symposium, GAAS 2005.

[2]  Brian Hughes,et al.  Principles of Nonlinear Active Device Modeling for Circuit Simulation , 1988, 32nd ARFTG Conference Digest.

[3]  F. Raab Class-F power amplifiers with maximally flat waveforms , 1997 .

[4]  H. Zirath,et al.  A new empirical nonlinear model for HEMT and MESFET devices , 1992 .

[5]  Fadhel M. Ghannouchi,et al.  On the large-signal modeling of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for RF switching-mode power amplifiers design , 2009, 2009 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference.

[6]  D. L. Ingram,et al.  A new empirical I-V model for HEMT devices , 1998 .

[7]  J.A. Reynoso-Hernandez,et al.  A New and Better Method for Extracting the Parasitic Elements of On-Wafer GaN Transistors , 2007, 2007 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium.

[8]  N.B. Carvalho,et al.  New nonlinear device model for microwave power GaN HEMTs , 2004, 2004 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37535).

[9]  F. I. Hirata-Flores,et al.  Modeling the I-V characteristics of the power microwave FETs with the Angelov model using pulse measurements , 2006 .

[10]  J. R. Loo-Yau,et al.  A straightforward method to determine the parasitic gate resistance of GaN FET , 2009, 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[11]  T. Tanimoto Analytical nonlinear HEMT model for large signal circuit simulation , 1996 .

[12]  M. Berroth,et al.  Broad-band determination of the FET small-signal equivalent circuit , 1990 .

[13]  Youngoo Yang,et al.  Analysis and experiments for high-efficiency class-F and inverse class-F power amplifiers , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[14]  Christian Fager,et al.  Prediction of IMD in LDMOS transistor amplifiers using a new large-signal model , 2002 .