Load impedance variations were obtained using an innovative integrated tuner at G-band. The 200 GHz load-pull measurements on a silicon–germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) are presented. First, the linearity of the integrated tuner is checked. Then, the main load-pull characteristics are extracted from a 0.13 × 3 µm2 emitter area SiGe HBT. The aim of this study is to provide a solution to avoid losses related to probes and commercial tuners. Thereby, from design to measurements, power setup architecture, calibration and performances at 200 GHz are performed in a non-50 Ω environment. Finally, comparisons between measurements and simulation from a high current model (HICUM) show good agreement, demonstrating the capability of the measurement approach.

This paper reports on the first RF microwave power characterization of High-k metal gate 28 nm CMOS devices. Measurement was performed on Load-pull configuration using a Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzer (NVNA) associated with a passive tuner at the fundamental frequency of 10 GHz. Behavior of these High-k metal gate 28 nm CMOS was analyzed on large signal conditions in class A operation. The maximal drain voltage withstanding was determined for various topologies. Transistors behavior was analyzed for optimal load impedance condition in terms of microwave output power and power added efficiency. Finally, a comparison with the standard 45 nm CMOS was achieved.

In this letter, we report load pull measurements on SiGe HBTs at 94 GHz. Nowadays, this kind of device exhibits F MAX above 400 GHz and thus has a growing interest for W-band applications. A load pull test bench is developed for the characterization of this device with special care on architecture and calibration procedure for accurate measurements in 75-110 GHz. The device was characterized under large signal operation showing attractive performance for power amplifier design. A state-of-the-art power density of 18.5 mW/μm 2 at 1-dB compression has been obtained at 94 GHz.

A report is presented on the first microwave power performances of high-k metal gate 28 nm CMOS devices. Measurements were performed in a large signal operation based on a nonlinear vector network analyser associated with a passive tuner at 10GHz. First, the behaviour of these high-k metal gate 28 nm CMOS devices was analysed in A-class operation. Then, the maximum withstandable drain voltage (before device destruction) was determined for various topologies. Finally, a comparison between this new technology and the usual CMOS 45 nm technology was exposed.

This paper summarizes the technological developments carried out in STMicroelectronics to raise the fT / fMAX of SiGe HBTs up to ~ 300 GHz / 400 GHz. The noise and power performance in the W-band of different SiGe HBT generations are compared along with CML ring oscillators and circuit results up to the D band.

In this paper we report for the first time power measurements on a single ended heterojunction bipolar transistor at 200 GHz with a variation of load impedance by means of an integrated tuner. These power measurements are done on a SiGe HBT from a BiCMOS technology featuring 220/280 GHz FT/FMAX, from STMicroelectronics. Integrated impedance tuners are specially designed in order to characterize the device for various load impedance. After ensuring the linearity of the integrated tuner, SiGe HBT is characterized in non linear operation in order to extract the common characteristics such as transducer gain, output power and power available efficiency at 200 GHz. Up to now, only measurements on integrated circuit such as amplifiers have been reported in this frequency range. This is the first report of a non linear measurement on a single ended device at this frequency thanks to the integrated tuner.

In this letter, the self-heating effects in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and the influence of the emitter width W-E and the emitter length L-E on all of the thermal parameters are presented for the first time by extracting the thermal resistance R-TH, capacitance C-TH, and time constant T-TH. First, we discuss the thermal impedance extraction method. The approach is based on both dc and ac measurements within the 30 kHz-6 GHz low-frequency range. Then, the self-heating influences of various SiGe HBT topologies are presented. Finally, R-TH, C-TH, and T-TH, which were extracted from different transistor geometries, are compared.

Nowadays capabilities offered by advanced silicon technologies enable both mmw design and agile circuits development, then the development of high performance tunable capacitance is now mandatory. One of the challenge to develop this component is to be able to design capacitance with a tuning range higher than 4 from RF up to millimeter wave range. Variable capacitance like MOS varactor does not meet circuit specifications due to their low tuning range and very high non linearity. Digital capacitances are a good candidate to address that need and this paper review the design, optimization and characterization of digital tunable capacitance (DTC). Specific DTC with series or traveling wave architecture are also address, allowing to synthesize high performance capacitance up to 110GHz regarding 10dBm linearity and a tuning ratio equal to 13. Those developments have been carried out using STMicroelectronics BiCMOS 0.13um millimeter wave technology. Finally, the design of a 60GHz Reflection Type Phase Shifter (RTPS) using 4 bits DTC is presented showing insertion loss less than 6dB and a phase shift of 62°.