Singel State Transistor

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 7

SIMPLE PCB BASED S-PARAMETER EXTRACTION METHOD

FOR RF AMPLIFIER CIRCUITS

S. C. Choi, J. E. Youm and S. W. Hwang Member


Dept. of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Korea University
Anam, Sungbuk, Seoul 136-701, Korea
Phone: +82-2-927-6114, Fax: +82-2-927-6114
Email: [email protected]

Keywords: S-parameters, de-embedding, printed circuit board (PCB), RF amplifier

Abstract
A new, simple S-parameter extraction method of RF transistor and amplifier is proposed
and demonstrated. The method is based on one-step layout and fabrication of a single
reference PCB and the complicated extra calibration kit is not needed. It is shown that
the S-parameters of the transistor can be accurately extracted by using the measurement
results of the reference board with the transistor and the equivalent circuits of the input
and the output stage. More importantly, it is also shown that the measurement results of
the reference board without the transistor can be replaced by full software-based
equivalent circuit modeling.

I. Introduction
Vendors distributing commercial RF amplifiers and transistors do not usually open
the information about the internal design structure and the package. Since the evaluation
board including matching circuits is presented only at the same bias and frequency given
in the datasheet, the given information does not help RF engineers design the systems at
different biases or frequencies. In other words, totally new parameters such as the S-
parameters, the noise figure, and other nonlinear parameters, under the changed
condition, should be extracted and used in design.
Various methods to extract the S-parameters have been introduced [1-3]. However, it
is hard for field engineers to use those methods, since they are composed of the
combinations of complex equations and the extra calibration kit such as TRL or SOLT.
These calibration kits are accurate but very hard to use.
We propose and demonstrate a simple PCB-based technique for the extraction of the
S-parameters of an unknown transistor amplifier. A simple PCB layout for the transistor
is made. Two PCBs with the same layout are fabricated. One is used as a reference
board with a 100 Ω resistor mounted on the position of the transistor. The other is the
board with the transistor. The former is used to verify if the equivalent circuit model of
the input and the output stage is accurate, and the later is used for extraction of the S-
parameters of a transistor. The extracted S-parameters are shown to predict the
performance of a two-stage amplifier circuit consisting of two transistors. One important
thing is that the measured results of the reference board with a 100 Ω resistor match
with the results calculated from the model parameters of the transmission line and

1
passive components [5]. This suggests that the measurement of the reference board with
a100 Ω resistor can be skipped and complete software-based board analysis can be used
in the parameter extraction.

II. Extraction of the S-parameters of an Unknown Transistor


Figure 1 shows the layout of a PCB for the extraction of the S-parameters of an
unknown transistor. The board is composed of three sections: the input stage, the
amplification stage, and the output stage. Figure 2 shows the flow chart of our parameter
extraction process.
In step 1, the PCB layout shown in Fig.1 is constructed. This board includes a T-type
matching block and bias circuits as well as a transistor. In step 2, the equivalent circuit
of the input and the output stage is obtained. The structure of the input stage of the PCB
used in this paper is symmetrical with that of the output stage and the analysis of only
the input stage is performed. Figure 3 shows the circuit of the input stage used in the
board Fig. 1.
In step 3, the reference board in Fig. 1 including the input and the output stage is
fabricated and measured to verify if the equivalent circuit model in step 2 is accurate.
The S-parameters are obtained by 2-port measurement after connecting the gate pad and
the drain pad with a resistor (100 Ω). Figure 4 shows the return loss (S11) and the
transmission loss (S21) of the reference board. The difference between the simulation
results and the measured results is less than 10-4 (–40 dB) in magnitude and than ±15° in
phase. This suggests that this step 3 can be omitted in our parameter extraction process
and the results fully based on the equivalent circuit can be utilized.
In step 4, 2-port S-parameters of each section are calculated and measured. The S-
parameters of the input and the output stage are calculated from the equivalent circuit of
which the accuracy has been verified in step 3. The S-parameters of the board with the
transistor are obtained by full 2-port measurement.
In step 5, all the S-parameters are converted to the ABCD matrices. Then the ABCD
matrix of the transistor can be extracted by the following formula. Here, [ABCD_tr],
[ABCD_in], [ABCD_out ], and [ABCD_full] are the ABCD matrices of the transistor,
the input stage, the output stage, and the board with the transistor, respectively.
[ABCD_tr] = [ABCD_in]-1 [ABCD_full] [ABCD_out ]-1
Figure 5 represents the S-parameters of the ATF-34143 transistor [4] extracted by
using the proposed method and by using the transistor model given by the vendors. The
gate bias in the transistor model is adjusted until the DC current-voltage (I-V)
characteristic of the transistor model is best matched with the measured I-V of the actual
transistor.

III. Design of Multi-stage Amplifiers Using the Extracted Parameters


First of all, a single stage amplifier using ATF-34143 is designed by using the
extracted parameters. The frequency of the circuit is arbitrarily chosen (1.6 GHz). Figure
6 shows the S-parameters of the circuit. The measured results are in almost agreement
with the results calculated by using the extracted parameters within maximum 3 dB for
S11 and ±0.3 dB for S21 and S12, except for S22.

2
Secondly, a 2-stage amplifier is designed again by using the extracted S-parameters of
the transistor. Figure 7 shows that the measured results are in agreement with the
calculated results within maximum 2 dB for all the S-parameters.
A similar parameter extraction is performed for the commercial amplifier (AH1) [6]
to demonstrate that our method can be applied quite generally. Matching is performed at
the frequency of 1.55 GHz. At this frequency, matching circuit is not described in the
datasheet. Figure 8 shows that the measured S-parameters of the circuit are again in
agreement with the calculated results except a little shift of the matching frequency.

IV. Conclusions
We have proposed and demonstrated a new, simple S-parameter extraction method of
RF transistor amplifier. The method is based on one-step layout and fabrication of a
single reference PCB and no complicated extra calibration kit is needed. The S-
parameters of the transistor have been shown to be accurately extracted by using the
measurement results of the reference board with the transistor and the equivalent circuits
of the input and the output stage. More importantly, it has been also shown that the
measured results of the reference board without the transistor can be replaced by full
software-based equivalent circuit modeling.

Acknowledgement
This work is supported by the Brain Korea 21 project in 2004.

References
[1] Hanjin Cho, Dorothea E. Burk, “A three-step method for the de-embedding of high-
frequency S-parameter measurements”, IEEE Transactions on Electron
Devices, Vol. 38 , pp. 1371 - 1375 , 1991.
[2] E. P. Vandamme, D.M.M.-P Schreurs, C. Van Dinther, “Improved three-step de-
embedding method to accurately account for the influence of pad parasitics in
silicon on-wafer RF test-structures”, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol.
48, pp.737 – 742, 2001.
[3] F.M. Ghannouchi, A. Brodeur, F. Beauregard, “A de-embedding technique for
reflection-based S-parameters measurements of microwave devices”, Conference on
Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, Digest, pp.119 – 120, 1994.
[4] Agilent, Inc., ATF-34143. [Online], Available: “http://www.semiconductor.agilent.
com/spg/doc/wirelessDesignTools/atf34143.zap”
[5] S-parameters of the passive components are provided by Murata, Inc., [Online],
Available: http://www.murata.com/designlib/mcsil.html
[6] WJ Communications, [Online], Available: http://www.wj.com/rf_com/ponents/
amplifiers/AH1.asp

3
Input stage output stage

Transistor

Figure 1 PCB layout used to extract the s-parameters of a transistor

1. PCB layout of the reference board

2.Equivalent circuit modeling of the input and the


output stage

3. Verification of the accuracy of the input and the


output circuit by fabrication of the reference board
(optional)

4. Fabrication and measurement of the reference


board with the transistor and then extraction of all
the S-parameters of each section

5. ABCD matrices conversion and calculation

Figure 2 Flow chart describing the parameter extraction procedure

4
MLOC MLOC MLOC MLOC
TL14 TL15 TL16 TL17
RF in To gate
1 2 1 2

Re f Re f

Port MLIN MLIN MLIN MLIN MLIN MTAPER Port


P1 TL3 TL7 TL8 TL9 S2P
TL10 Taper1 P2
Num=1 S2P S2P 1
SNP7 Num=2
SNP1 SNP2 Ref

MLIN
TL11

1 2 1 2

Re f Ref

MLIN
TL12
S2P S2P
SNP3 SNP11
Port
P3

Vgg

Figure 3 ADS equivalent circuit of the input stage

: simulated results
× : measured results
(a) |S| = 1 (b)
S(3,3)
S(1,1)

S(4,3)
S(2,1)

-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

freq (500.0MHz to 3.000GHz) freq (500.0MHz to 3.000GHz)

Figure 4 (a) Return loss (S11) and (b) transmission loss (S21) of the reference board of

Fig. 1 when a 100 Ω resistor is mounted on the pads for the transistor.

5
: The proposed method
× : ADS model
(a) |S| = 1 (b)

S22
S(4,4)
S(3,3)
S(2,2)
S(1,1)

S(4,3)
S(2,1)
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
S11

freq (500.0MHz to 3.000GHz) freq (500.0MHz to 3.000GHz)

Figure 5 (a) Smith chart of S11 and S22, (b) Polar plot of S21

: simulated results
× : measured results
(a) 0 (b) 0
-5 -10
dB(S(3,3))
dB(S(1,1))

dB(S(4,4))
dB(S(2,2))

-10 -20
-15 -30
-20 -40
-25 -50
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz
(c) 20
(d) 0
-10
10
dB(S(3,4))
dB(S(1,2))

-20
dB(S(4,3))
dB(S(2,1))

0 -30
-40
-10
-50
-20 -60
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz

Figure 6 S-parameters of a single stage amplifier fabricated using the ATF-34143: (a)

S11, (b) S22, (c) S21, and (d) S12

6
: simulated results
× : measured results
(a) 0
(b) 0
-5 -5
dB(S(3,3))
dB(S(1,1))

dB(S(4,4))
dB(S(2,2))
-10 -10
-15 -15
-20 -20
-25 -25
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz
(c) 30 (d) -20
20 -40
dB(S(4,3))
dB(S(2,1))

dB(S(3,4))
dB(S(1,2))
10
-60
0
-10 -80

-20 -100
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz

Figure 7 S-parameters of a two-stage amplifier fabricated using the ATF-34143: (a) S11,

(b) S22, (c) S21, and (d) S12


: simulated results
× : measured results
(a) 0 (b) -5
-10
-10
dB(S(3,3))
dB(S(1,1))

dB(S(4,4))
dB(S(2,2))

-15
-20 -20
-25
-30
-30
-40 -35
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz
(c)15 (d)-20
10 -25
dB(S(4,3))
dB(S(2,1))

dB(S(3,4))
dB(S(1,2))

5 -30

0 -35

-5 -40
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
freq, GHz freq, GHz

Figure 8 S-parameters of an amplifier fabricated using AH1: (a) S11, (b) S22, (c) S21, and

(d) S12

You might also like