ECE 113 Lecture 13:

Transistors at RF
References: Bowick, Chapter 4; Hagen, Chapter 4;
Vendelin, Chapter3

1s1819 Revision October 2018

 Introduction
• Components at RF are “imperfect”
• Transistor performance too, varies with
frequency
• Equivalent circuit model
• Input impedance, output impedance, feedback, and
gain
• Y- and S- parameters (and how manufacturers
present these information)
 Transistor-Level Design
• We already have IC blocks, so what for?
• Reasons:
1. Exploration of design options
- allows engineers to optimize designs
2. Methodologies
- automated design tools to speed the
design process
3. Results
- optimization AND with possible design reuse
 RF Transistor Materials
• Transistor – building block of several
microwave networks
• Example: Low noise amplifier (LNA), Power
amplifiers (PA), mixers, oscillators, switches,
attenuators, etc.
• Different materials – performance of transistor
to change significantly (or even minimally)
Bipolar Junction Transistor Field Effect Transistor

Current-controlled Voltage-controlled
Consumes much power Switches slowly
 RF Transistor Materials
• Examples:
o Lateral-diffused (LD)
o Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs)
o Silicon Germanium (SiGe)
o Metal-semicon FETs (MESFETs)
o Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs)
o Gallium-Nitride (GaN)
o High-Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs)
o Silicon Carbide (SiC)
o etc.
RF Transistor Characteristic
Curves
 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
• CE configuration for BJT – Hybrid-Pi Model
 Bipolar Transistor Equivalent Circuit
Base Spreading
Resistance (~10 Ω)
Junction between base contact
and semiconductor material
that composes the base
Feedback Resistance (~5M Ω)
CB junction
Feedback Capacitance (~3pF)
Formed at reverse-biased CB junction.
Has significant effect as frequency
increases

Output Resistance (~100k Ω)

Looking back into the collector

Input Resistance
(~1000 Ω)
BE junction for forward-
biased transistor
Emitter Diffusion Capacitance
(~100pF)
Parallel with small emitter junction
capacitance, associated with the physics
of the semiconductor junction

ALL are inherent parasitic elements that are internal to the semiconductor material itself.
 Field Effect Transistor Equivalent Circuit
DS configuration
+Vdsi

Idi
Drain

Gate

Source

Package parasitics, circuit model for self heating, and breakdown voltage are included
together with the inherent parasitics internal to the semiconductor material itself.
 Transistor Equivalent Circuit
• Connection has to be made between the
semiconductor material to the transistor leads
(via wire bonding)
 Transistor Equivalent Circuit

• Additional series inductance for lead and bonding wires

• Equivalent circuit is not trivial
• All components affect the device’s operation at high
frequencies
• Simplifications thru assumptions can help analyze the
transistor behaviour
 Input Impedance
• Equivalent circuit using simplification via Miller
effect
𝐶𝐶′ = 𝐶𝐶 (1 − 𝛽𝑅𝐿 )
 Input Impedance

• Equivalent input impedance:

• CT and rb’e are primary

contributors
• LB and LE can be limited
practically to bonding
inductance
• These components will have
practically no effect on Zin until
above VHF
 Input Impedance

• At DC, Zin = rbb’ + rb’e

• At some 𝜔,
 Input Impedance

• For some 600 MHz

component values,

112 MHz DC
• Why on Smith
Chart?
1. For practice. ☺
2. Ease with which
both Z and Y can 30 MHz
be read (see 7 MHz
usual datasheets) 15 MHz
 Output Impedance

• Equivalent output impedance:

• Typically decreases with frequency due to Ce

and Cc
 Output Impedance
• During operation, some of collector signal is
fed back to Base through Cc
• This causes additional current flow in rb’e
• Amplified by 𝛽 thus increasing collector current
• Appears as decrease in collector impedance
• Acts like a hidden element that tends to further
decrease the impedance aside from the
capacitive reactances of Ce and Cc
• Also, increasing the external source resistance
Rs will decrease Zout
 Feedback Characteristics
• Primarily due to Cc as its reactance decreases with
increasing frequency – more collector signal is fed
back to the base
1. Stray reactances coupled with Cc could produce a
180° phase shift
- When added to the normally inverted signal, could turn
an amplifier into an oscillator very quickly
2. Any change in load (source) resistance directly
affects the input (output) impedance
- Difficult to address when matching impedance on both
input and output simultaneously
- Perfect match is not possible, consider only a tolerable
level.
- Simultaneous conjugate match method (for advanced
transistor design)
 Gain
• Normally, we are interested in power gain (due
to the myriad of impedance levels in RF;
voltage and current gains alone no longer
mean anything)
• Example (like an RC lowpass with gain)
 Gain
• Power gain classification:
1. Unilateralized – gain available from the
transistor negating feedback effects of rb’c
and Cc (Recall: feedback decreases the gain of
a device)
2. Neutralized – gain available when only the
effects of Cc is negated/neutralized.
3. Unneutralized – no feedback is compensated

*Neutralization – providing external feedback

from collector to base to cancel the internal
negative feedback
 Y-Parameters
• 𝑌 = 𝐺 ± 𝑗𝐵 (𝑍 = 𝑅 ± 𝑗𝑋)
• Tool to aid in the unambiguous presentation of the
characteristics of a device at certain frequency and
bias point
• Tells the user what the transistor “looks like” to
something connected to its terminals under certain
conditions
• Presents the model of the transistor
• Can be used to:
• Impedance-matching network
• Determining maximum available gain
• Determine stability (or lack of)
Transistor as Two-Port Network
• In most applications, one terminal is common
to both input and output network
Transistor as Two-Port Network

• The transistor can be completely characterized

by observing its behaviour at the two ports
• Note: DC biasing network is omitted.
 Two-Port Y-Parameters
• Can completely characterize the behaviour of
transistor at a certain frequency and bias point.
• Independent of applied signal level as long as
linear operation
 Two-Port Y-Parameters
• Not a DC short circuit when V1 and V2=0, but
at the test frequency
• Usually accomplished by placing a large
capacitor across the terminal requiring a short
• Y-parameters are generally complex
 Two-Port Y-Parameters
• I1 depends on V1 obviously
• BUT I1 is also dependent upon V2 due to the
internal feedback which must be accounted for
 Why Y-Parameters?
• Often published by manufacturers
• Easier to create large capacitors than large
inductors (for an open, Z-parameters)
• However, still difficult since stray reactances
become significant at higher frequencies too –
measurement errors

• Equally extremely useful with Z-parameters

• Introduction of S-Parameters and availability of
specialized test equipment for such parameters
changed the trend.
 S-Parameters
• Widely used:
✓Easier to measure and work with
✓Easy to understand, convenient
✓Provide wealth of information at a glance
• Terminated in the characteristic impedance of
measuring system (usually 50-ohm)
Q: What if device has Zo=75 ohms?
A: Re-normalization or use of impedance transformer
(with minimum loss)
• 50-ohm termination (purely resistive) is easier
to control
- Can force active DUTs to be stable (not always
possible with short circuit Y-parameters, making
measurements impossible)
 Measuring S-Parameters
• See Lecture 8
 Review
• What does the following represent? and what
their corresponding values mean?
➢ S11 – input reflection coefficient
➢ S22 – output reflection coefficient
➢ S21 – forward gain / insertion loss
➢ S12 – reverse gain / insertion loss

• S-parameters, in own form, is more meaningful

than the equivalent Y- (or Z-) parameters
 S- and Y-Parameters
• Both can fully represent/characterize a device
• Manufacturers often publish S-parameters (but
some provide Y-parameters too) along with
their variation over frequency to give designers
the flexibility for intended application

• If only given one set of parameters, then

conversion is available.
S- and Y-Parameters
Understanding RF Transistor Datasheets
• Only a bit more complex than low-frequency
counterpart
• Information of concern:
➢ Datasheet Title – denotes particular application for the
device (e.g. high-gain, low noise, etc.)
➢ Maximum Ratings – common to all device datasheet
➢ fT, transition frequency – also the GBWP, unity gain of
current and NOT power; upper frequency limit
➢ Ccb, CB-capacitance – as measured at specific frequency
➢ hfe – the DC 𝛽 or CE current gain at a specified
frequency
➢ rb’Cc, CB time constant – a measure of feedback
characteristic
➢NF, noise figure – how much noise the transistor adds
to the signal
 Summary
• Transistor is no different from any other
components at RF – has stray reactances that
limit its high-frequency performance
• Y- and S-parameters present the complex
transistor behaviour over frequency with
minimum effort at specific bias points
• Manufacturers try to provide a set of typical
operating conditions for the device
• The end-user decides on what device to use,
which application, and how to use these
devices in the design task.
Understanding RF Transistor Datasheets
• Examine sample RF transistor datasheets