Microwave Transistors

Rinkee Chopra
Ph.D. Student and Teaching Assistant
Electrical Engineering Department
IIT Bombay, Powai- 400076
rinkee_chopra@iitb.ac.in
rinkee.may10@gmail.com

Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 1

 Outline of Presentation
 Microwave Transistors Types
1. Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)
 PNP and NPN types
 Common Emitter (CE) BJT Configurations
 Hetrojunction Bipolar transistor (HBT)
2. Field Effect Transistors (FET)
 Junction Field Effect Transistors (JFETs)
 Metal oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET)
 Metal Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MESFET)
 High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT)
 CE Amplifier Design Examples of Transistors
 Applications of Microwave Transistors
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 2
 Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)

PNP Transistor NPN Transistor

Symbol Symbol
Image Source: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Analogue_Electronics/BJTs
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 3
 BJT- Biasing
B - Base
E - Emitter
C - Collector
IE = IB + IC
𝐼𝑐 = 𝛽𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐶𝑂
Image Source: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Analogue_Electronics/BJTs

Active Region EB junction – Forward Bias, CB Junction – Reverse Bias

Saturation Region EB junction – Forward Bias, CB Junction – Forward Bias
Cut-off Region EB junction – Reverse Bias, CB Junction – Reverse Bias
Inverted Region EB junction – Reverse Bias, CB Junction – Forward Bias
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 4
 CE Configuration - DC Load Line
Voltage Divider or Self Bias Output Characteristics

𝑉𝐶𝐶 − 𝑉𝐶𝐸
𝐼𝑐 =
𝑅𝐿 Image Source: https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/tran_2.html
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 5
 Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT)
• Heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) is a
type of BJT that uses a different type of
semiconductor material for the emitter and
base regions, creating a heterojunction.

• HBTs have low base

resistance and very high
operating frequency.

• HBTs provide low transit time, low base- emitter capacitance, high trans-
conductance and output resistance, high gain, high power handling
capability, and high breakdown voltage.
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 6
 Silicon Bipolar RF Transistor (BFP520)
High gain and low noise at high frequencies due to high transit frequency fT = 45 GHz
Power Dissipation Transition Frequency

VCEO= 2.5 V
VCBO = 10 V
VEBO = 1 V
IC= 40 mA
Ptot = 125 mW
f T = 45 GHz
DC current gain = 110
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 7
 Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET)
Output Characteristics

JFET 2
𝑉𝐺𝑆
𝐼𝐷 = 𝐼𝐷𝑠𝑠 1 − ,
𝑉𝑝
∆𝐼𝐷
𝑔𝑚 =
∆𝑉𝐺𝑆

Image Source : https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transistor/tran_5.html

Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 8
 MOSFET
𝐼𝐷 = 𝐾𝑁 𝑉𝐺𝑆 − 𝑉𝑇 2 Output Characteristics
Structure

Symbol

Image Source : https://www.electronics-

tutorials.ws/transistor/tran_6.html
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 9
 MESFET
Structure MESFET is a metal semiconductor
field effect transistor
MESFET Characteristics
• High electron mobility
• Low capacitance levels
• High input impedance
• Negative temperature coefficient
• Lack of oxide traps
• High level of geometry control

Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 10

High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)
HEMT devices: Structure
• are heterostructures
• offer high power dissipation
capability, maximum operating
frequency, noise performance.
• gate length limits the maximum
operating frequency of the
device.

Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 11

 CE Amplifier Design Example
𝑉𝐶𝐶
Choose VB = =4𝑉 VCC = 12 V
3 𝑉𝑇 25𝑚𝑉
𝑉𝐵 −𝑉𝐵𝐸 r𝑒 = = = 25
I𝐸 = = 1 𝑚𝐴 I𝐶 1 𝑚𝐴
𝑅𝐸
𝐼𝐸
I𝐵 = ≅ 10 𝐴
𝛽+1
𝑉𝐶𝐸 = 𝑉𝐶𝐶 − I𝐶 R 𝐶 − I𝐸 R 𝐸 = 4.7 𝑉 B
vo
vs
Output impedance: 𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑅𝑐 = 4.0 𝑘
Input impedance:
𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 𝑅1 ∥ 𝑅2 ∥ 𝛽𝑟𝑒 = 𝑅1 ∥ 𝑅2 ∥ 2.5 𝑘
𝑉𝑐𝑐 𝑅𝑐 = 4.0 𝑘Ω, 𝑅𝐸 = 3.3 𝑘Ω
𝐼= ≫ 𝐼𝐵 𝛽 = 100, 𝑅𝐿 = 10 𝑘Ω
𝑅1 +𝑅2
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 12
 CE Amplifier Design Example (Contd.)
vo vi −𝛽(𝑅𝑐 ∥𝑅𝐿 ) 𝑅
Voltage gain: 𝐴𝑣 = . = . 𝑖𝑛
vi vs 𝛽𝑟𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑛 +𝑅𝑠
𝑅𝑐 ∥𝑅𝐿 𝑅 𝑅𝑖𝑛
𝐴𝑣 = − . 𝑖𝑛 ≅ −114.
𝑟𝑒 𝑅𝑖𝑛 +𝑅𝑠 𝑅𝑖𝑛 +𝑅𝑠

R in = R1 ∥ R 2 ∥ 2.5 k 𝑅1 𝑅2
For microwave source Rs= 50  1 𝑘Ω 2 𝑘Ω
𝑅𝑖𝑛 10 𝑘Ω 20 𝑘Ω
𝐴𝑣 = −114.
𝑅𝑖𝑛 + 𝑅𝑠 100 𝑘Ω 200 𝑘Ω
Case 1: 𝑅1 = 1 𝑘, 𝑅2 = 2 𝑘  𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 0.53 𝑘  𝐴𝑣 = −104, 𝐼 = 4 𝑚𝐴
Case 2: 𝑅1 = 10 𝑘, 𝑅2 = 20 𝑘  𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 1.82 𝑘  𝐴𝑣 = −110, 𝐼 = 0.4 𝑚𝐴
Case 3: 𝑅1 = 100 𝑘, 𝑅2 = 200 𝑘  𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 2.41 𝑘  𝐴𝑣 = 112, 𝐼 = 40 𝐴
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 13
 Transistor Applications
• Attenuators
• RF Switches
• Amplifiers
 Low power
 Medium gain
 High power
 Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)
• Oscillators
• Mixers
Microwave Theory and Techniques | Prof. Girish Kumar, IIT Bombay 14