WELCOME HOUSEKEEPING INFO Unit 2 Module 2

Course Teacher: Dr S Suganthi

suganthi.s@christuniversity.in WA: +91-8861256865

EC734 Microwave Engineering, 09, 10 June 2020

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CHRIST is a nurturing ground for an individual’s Excellence and Service Faith in God | Moral Uprightness
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the society in a dynamic environment Social Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
 EC734 Microwave Engineering,
09, 10 June 2020, Unit 2 Module 2

This course aims at imparting knowledge about the passive and active
microwave components and devices used in microwave engineering
Unit 2, SOLID STATE MICROWAVE DEVICES
Topics covered
• Module 1: Introduction to microwave solid state devices- Diodes, BJTs and
FETs, materials used, applications in low power and miniaturized systems
• Module2: BJT, configurations, Principle of operation, I-V characteristics, voltage-
frequency, current-frequency and power-frequency limitations
• Module 3: JFET – Physical Structure, Principles of Operation, Pinch-off voltage
• Module 4: MESFET – Physical Structure, Principles of Operation, Pinch-off voltage
• Module 5: Introduction, Gunn-effect diodes – GaAs Diodes,
• Module 6: RWH Theory, Modes of Operation, LSA Diodes
• Module 7: ATTD Introduction, READ Diode, IMPATT Diode, TRAPATT Diode, BARITT
Diode
• Module 8: Introduction to parametric amplifiers - varactor diode, characteristics,
advantages and applications

MISSION VISION CORE VALUES

CHRIST is a nurturing ground for an individual’s Excellence and Service Faith in God | Moral Uprightness
holistic development to make effective contribution to Love of Fellow Beings
the society in a dynamic environment Social Responsibility | Pursuit of Excellence
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Microwave Bipolar Junction Transistors
• Invented by William Shockley and his colleagues at Bell Lab in 1948.
• MW BJT is a non-linear device.
• Its principle of operation is similar to that of low-frequency device.
• But the requirements for dimensions, process control, heat sinking, and
packaging are much more severe.
• In MW applications, Si BJTs dominate from UHF (300 MHz) to S band (upto
3 GHz)
• With the advent of technology, frequency extends upto 22 GHz.
• It offers higher gain than the conventional FETs and exhibits moderate
noise figure.
• Si BJTs are inexpensive, durable, integrative.
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Physical Structure
• All microwave transistors are planar structure.
• Fabrication is done through diffusion and ion
implantation methods (starting from lightly doped to
heavily doped)
• Almost all are of the silicon n-p-n type
• The geometry can be characterized as follows:
• Interdigitated
 Has n emitter fingers and n+1 base fingers
 No. of fingers are chosen based on the
application
 But this will increase parasitic oscillations and
reduces the upper frequency capability.
• Overlay
 similar to interdigitated but the emitter shapes
are different.
 Used for small signal and power applications
• Matrix (also called mesh or emitter grid) –
 Similar to interdigitated
 Used for small power applications only.

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Discrete n-p-n planar BJT Chip Type n-p-n Integrated BJT

• For high frequency applications, the n-p-n structure is preferred

because electron mobility is much higher than the hole mobility
• That is,𝜇𝑝 = 450𝑐𝑚2 /𝑉. 𝑠 ≤ 𝜇𝑛 = 1500𝑐𝑚2 /𝑉. 𝑠

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Geometry of the n-p-n silicon double diffused epitaxial transistor

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BJT Configurations – CBC, CEC, CCC
• In general there are three configurations
• Common Base Configuration
• Common Emitter Configuration
• Common Collector Configuration
• Common Base Configuration
• Also called Grounded base Configurations
• For a p-n-p transistor , the largest current
components are caused by holes
• Holes flow from the emitter to the collector and
down toward ground out of the base terminal.
• In an n-p-n transistor, all current and voltage
polarities are negative to those in a p-n-p transistor.
• Used in amplifier applications
• Input voltage 𝑉𝐸𝐵 = Some function of 𝑉𝐶𝐵 , 𝐼𝐸
• Output current 𝐼𝐶 = Some function of 𝑉𝐶𝐵 , 𝐼𝐸
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Common Emitter Configuration

• Also called Grounded Emitter Configurations

• Most transistors have their emitter rather than
their base, as the terminal to both input and
output networks.
• Used as a switch or pulse transistor amplifier.
• This is because the transistor is open at the cut
off mode and is closed at the saturation mode

• Input voltage 𝑉𝐵𝐸 = Some function of 𝑉𝐶𝐸 , 𝐼𝐵

• Output current 𝐼𝐶 = Some function of 𝑉𝐶𝐸 , 𝐼𝐵

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Common Collector Configuration
• Also called Grounded Collector Configurations.

• The output voltage of the load is taken from the

emitter terminal instead of the collector as in the
common base and common emitter configurations.

• When the transistor is cut off , no current will flow in

the emitter terminal at the load.

• When the transistor is operating in a saturation

mode, the load current reaches towards its maximum.

• Therefore the CC configuration used as a switch or

pulse amplifier.

• Common Collector amplifier has no voltage gain.

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Principle of Operation of Microwave BJT
• Bipolar Junction Transistor is an
active three-terminal device
• Can be used to design amplifier,
oscillator or switch

Modes of Operation

• Normal mode
• Saturation Mode
• Cut off mode
• Inverse Mode

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Various components of current flow in an n-p-n BJT Deemed to be University

• Normal bias conditions considered.

• Collector junction reverse biased and emitter junction forward biased.
• As the emitter is forward biased, large number of electrons gets injected in to the base.
• As the base width is kept very low, some of the electrons recombine with the majority
carriers of the base.
• But most of the electron current diffuses to the collector due to its voltage +ve and the
corresponding electric field attracting them.
• The hole current of the emitter and of the collector will be there as minority.
• Part of hole current is used at the base for recombining with the electrons coming from
emitter. This will constitute the small base current .

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I- V characteristics of Transistor
There are three regions for the I-V
characteristics of an n-p-n
bipolar transistor.

1. Active region:
• In this region, the emitter junction is
forward biased and the collector junction
is reverse biased.

• The collector current is essentially

independent of collector voltage and
depends only on the emitter current.

• When the emitter current is zero, the

collector current is equal to the reverse
saturation current
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2. Saturation region:
• In this region, both emitter and collector junction are forward
biased.
• The electron current flows from the n side across the collector
junction to the p-type base.
• As a result, the collector current increases sharply.

3. Cut off region :

• In this region, the emitter and collector junctions are both reverse
biased.
• Consequently , the emitter current is cut off to zero, as shown in
the lower right side of the Figure.

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Cut off frequency Deemed to be University

At microwave frequencies, three parasitic elements come in to play. These are

(a) inter Electrode bond pad capacitances
(b) inductance, as the current in the lead wires has skin effect.
(c) resistances of the base, emitter and collector regions in the silicon
All these limit the maximum frequency of operation of the transistor.

The ultimate frequency limitation is due to the following.

(i) Charging times 𝝉𝒄𝒕𝒄 and 𝝉𝒄𝒕𝒆 of the

- Collector Depletion capacitance(Cc)

- Emitter Junction Capacitance (CE)

Total Charging time 𝜏𝑐𝑡 = 𝜏𝑐𝑡𝑐 + 𝜏𝑐𝑡𝑒

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(ii) Transit times 𝝉𝒕𝒕𝒃 and 𝝉𝒕𝒕𝒄 of

- Base (non-depleted part) 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑏
- Collector depletion region 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑐

Total Transit time

Total delay for the signal to pass from emitter to the collector will be
𝜏𝑡𝑡 = 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑏 + 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑐

𝜏 𝑇 = 𝜏𝑐𝑡 + 𝜏𝑡𝑡 = 𝜏𝑐𝑡𝑐 + 𝜏𝑐𝑡𝑒 + 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑏 + 𝜏𝑡𝑡𝑐

1
This leads to the cut off frequency as: 𝑓𝑇 = (𝛽 = 1)
2𝜋𝜏𝑇

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To summarize.. Reference book used: Microwave
devices and circuits by Samuel Liao

Topics covered:

BJT – Configurations, Principles of

Operation, I-V Characteristics of a
transistor, Frequency Limitations

Next class.. In Module 3

Voltage-frequency, current-frequency and

power-frequency limitations in BJT

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