This paper introduces a new approach to the modeling of capacitance in field-effect transistor (FET) devices, which we call division by current. It is compared with existing formulations, which we call division by capacitance and division by charge. In doing so, it is necessary to normalize the theory of nonlinear capacitances and to clarify a number of matters. These include charge conservation and determination of charge functions from capacitance measurements, which are often misstated in the literature. We find the division by current formulation to be practical and to have significant advantages in the generation of FET models and in circuit simulation.

We discuss the impact of orbital fluctuations on the noise spectrum of a free-running oscillator, exploiting a rigorous nonlinear perturbative analysis based on the Floquet theory, and providing evidence of its relevance for high-Q oscillators.

In this work a de-embedding technique oriented to the evaluation of the load line at the intrinsic resistive core of microwave FET devices is presented. The approach combines vector high-frequency nonlinear load-pull measurements with an accurate description of the reactive nonlinearities, thus allowing one to determine the actual load line of the drain–source current generator under realistic conditions. Thanks to the proposed approach, the dispersive behavior of the resistive core and the compatibility of the voltage and current waveforms with reliability requirements can be directly monitored. Different experiments carried out on a gallium nitride HEMT sample are reported.

A nonlinear circuit model (NCM) with physical parameters is proposed for direct simulation of the RF characteristics of GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) on the basis of device structure. The physical equations are used for the construction of the model in order to connect strongly the model parameters with the device/physical parameters. Hyperbolic tangent functions are used as the model equations to ensure good model convergence and rapid simulation (short simulation time). The usefulness of these equations is confirmed by technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation. The number of model parameters for the nonlinear components (Ids, Cgs, Cgd) is reduced to 17 by using common physical parameters for modeling the drain current and capacitance. The accuracy of this model is verified by applying to GaN HEMTs. The modeled I–V and capacitance characteristics agree well with the measurement data over a wide voltage range. Furthermore, this model can be used for the accurate evaluation of S-parameters and large-signal RF characteristics.

This paper describes existing and new criteria for comparison and optimization of non-linear power amplifiers such as RF or microwave transmitters. In addition to intermodulation, receiver noise, and losses in the transmission system, the proposed new criteria take into account efficiency or consumed power. This results in the global optimization of a combined signal-to-noise-plus-intermodulation ratio as a function of saturated or nominal power but also consumed or dissipated power. Saturated power is limited by available technology. Consumed power and dissipated power are some of the main constraints in telecommunication satellite payloads, mobile phone handsets, and RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification). Another constraint comes from the limited size of antennas, which limits the system equivalent isotropic radiated power and gain-to-temperature ratio. With the proposed criteria the designer will be able to compare different amplifier technologies and to optimize the design and operating point of each stage of a multistage amplifier or a linearizer for a given amplifier. Interference from same or other systems is also introduced in the optimization through the use of signal-to-noise-plus-IM-plus-interference ratio criteria.

This paper demonstrates a highly efficient 3-stage Doherty power amplifier (PA) employing an envelope tracking (ET) technique. The ‘3-stage’ Doherty PA is the most efficient architecture for a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) signal among the various Doherty PAs. However, because of the lower peaking biases than those of the ‘N-way’ Doherty PA, the proper load modulation is hard to be achieved. To get proper modulation, the peaking PAs' gate biases have been adaptively controlled using the ET technique, and the peak power and maximum efficiency characteristic along the backed-off output power region is successfully achieved. By ADS and Matlab simulations, the overall behavior of the 3-stage Doherty PA employing the ET technique has been fully analyzed. To maximize the overall efficiency of the proposed 3-stage Doherty PA, the unit PA has been designed using class F−1 PA. For verification, the amplifier is implemented using 5 W and 10 W PEP LDMOSFETs for the 802.16e mobile world interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) at 1 GHz with a 8.5 dB PAPR. The measured drain efficiency of the proposed 3-stage Doherty PA is 55.5% at an average output power of 37 dBm, which is a 7.54 dB backed-off output power. The digital feedback predistortion (DFBPD) algorithm has been used to linearize the proposed PA considering the ET technique. After linearization, the −33.15 dB of relative constellation error (RCE) performance is achieved, satisfying the system specification. These results show that the 3-stage Doherty employing the ET technique and saturated PA is the most suitable PA for the highly efficient and linear transmitter.

A four-stage distributed amplifier utilizing low-loss slow-wave shielded (SWS) transmission lines is implemented in a standard 0.13 μm Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The amplifier when biased in its high current operating mode of IDtotal = 46 mA (at Vdd = 2.2 V, Pdiss = 101 mW) provides a forward transmission gain of 11.3 ± 1.5 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 17 GHz and a gain-bandwidth product of 74 GHz. The noise figure (NF) under the same bias condition is better than 8.5 dB up to 10 GHz. The measured output-referred 1-dB compression point is higher than +2 dBm. The amplifier is also measured under low-bias condition of IDtotal = 18 mA (at Vdd = 1.15 V, Pdiss = 20.7 mW). It provides a transmission gain of 6.6 ± 1 dB, a 3-dB bandwidth of 14.8 GHz, a gain-bandwidth product of 35.5 GHz, and a NF of better than 8.6 dB up to 10 GHz. Despite using a simple four-stage cascode design, this distributed amplifier achieves very high-gain-bandwidth product at a relatively low DC power compared to the state of the art CMOS distributed amplifiers reported in the literature. This is due to the incorporation of low-loss SWS coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines with a loss factor of nearly 50% of that of standard transmission lines on CMOS-grade Si substrate.

This paper analyzes the noise properties of balanced amplifier configurations in terms of noise waves and discusses the effect of various amplifier configurations on the noise and signal parameters. It shows how the noise generated in the load on the input coupler of a balanced amplifier deteriorates the amplifiers noise resistance parameter with respect to that of its component amplifiers. The properties of two new balanced amplifier configurations will be discussed, which enable the reduction or elimination of this deterioration.

A dual wideband design of Sierpinski carpet fractal-shaped planar monopole antenna with a coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed is proposed in this letter. Wide impedance bandwidth of 22% at lower resonance from 4.88 to 6.08 GHz and 41.7% at higher one, which ranges from 9.5 to 14.5 GHz, is obtained. Measured realized antenna gain is around 5 dBi at the lower band centered around 5.5 GHz and are around 4.5 dBi at the higher band. A fabricated prototype is developed with good agreement between simulation and measurement.

An in vitro system for 2.45 GHz microwave (MW) exposure with real-time fluorescence measurements is proposed. This system is specifically designed for the measurement of those biophysical parameters of living cells or membrane models which can be quantified by spectrofluorometric methods (e.g. membrane generalized polarization (GP), membrane fluidity, membrane potential, etc.). The novelty of the system consists in the possibility to perform fluorescence measurements on the biological samples simultaneously with their exposure to MW. The MW applicator is an open ended coaxial antenna which is dipped into a cuvette. The distribution of electromagnetic field and specific absorption rate (SAR) in the cuvette are provided from a rigorous electromagnetic numerical analysis performed with a finite difference-time domain (FDTD) based tool. With this system, fluorescence measurements were used to calculate the membrane GP values of giant unilamellar vesicle suspensions that were acquired during exposure to a 1.2 W incident power. For this power, the SAR distribution and mean SAR value for the whole volume were calculated based on temperature measurements made at different positions inside the cuvette.