Characterization and Modeling of an SiGe HBT Technology for Transceiver Applications in the 100–300-GHz Range

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology for extracting and verifying the high-frequency model parameters of the HICUM L0 and L2 models of a silicon-germanium HBT from device and circuit measurements in the 110-325-GHz range. For the first time, the non-quasi-static effects, missing in the HICUM/L0 model, are found to be essential in accurately capturing the frequency dependence of the transistor maximum available power gain beyond the inflection frequency for unconditional stability. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the optimal partitioning of the area and periphery components of the junction base-emitter, base-collector, and collector-substrate capacitances, and of the internal and external base and collector resistances can only be determined from <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> -parameter measurements beyond 200 GHz. The extracted models are validated on state-of-the-art linear and nonlinear circuits (amplifier, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and VCO + divider chain) operating at frequencies as high as 240 GHz.