Internal-node waveform analysis of MMIC power amplifiers

A novel internal-node waveform probing technique has been demonstrated on a C-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier. The error of the measurement and its perturbance to circuit operation was estimated and verified to be within /spl plusmn/10%. Valuable insight was obtained from the variation of waveforms as a function of frequency, drive and location. The potential impact of this technique includes MMIC design verification, in-situ device model extraction, process diagnosis, and reliability assessment.