Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Simple Modeling and Analysis of Total-Ionizing-Dose Effects on Radio-Frequency Low-Noise Amplifier

Version 1 : Received: 20 February 2024 / Approved: 20 February 2024 / Online: 21 February 2024 (05:15:34 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Kim, T.; Ryu, G.; Lee, J.; Cho, M.-K.; Fleetwood, D.M.; Cressler, J.D.; Song, I. Simple Modeling and Analysis of Total Ionizing Dose Effects on Radio-Frequency Low-Noise Amplifiers. Electronics 2024, 13, 1445. Kim, T.; Ryu, G.; Lee, J.; Cho, M.-K.; Fleetwood, D.M.; Cressler, J.D.; Song, I. Simple Modeling and Analysis of Total Ionizing Dose Effects on Radio-Frequency Low-Noise Amplifiers. Electronics 2024, 13, 1445.

Abstract

In this study, the degradation characteristics of radio-frequency (RF) low-noise amplifier (LNA) based on silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) due to total ionizing dose (TID) are investigated. The small-signal equivalent model of a SiGe HBT is utilized to analyze circuit-level performance including the input and the output matching and noise figure (NF). As a target circuit, an LNA with a cascode common-emitter stage with emitter degeneration is studied and the equation of each performance parameter is derived. The RF LNA fabricated using commercial 350 nm SiGe technology was exposed to X-ray irradiation with the total dose up to 3 Mrad (SiO2). The experimental results exhibit that modeled device parameters estimate the degraded circuit performance. In addition, the relative impact of each parameter on the circuit metrics is revealed, which is expected from the derived design equations. The key device parameters for modeling TID-induced circuit degradations include the base resistance, the transconductance, and the base-to-emitter capacitance.

Keywords

low-noise amplifier (LNA); radiation effect; radio frequency (RF); silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe HBT); small-signal modeling; total ionizing dose (TID)

Subject

Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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