Characterization of W-band MMIC power amplifier using on-wafer pulsed power test

A facile technique based on pulsed power test has been developed to characterize W-band MMIC power amplifiers and optimize their gain and PAE (power added efficiency) on-wafer. By suppressing thermal effects usually associated with conventional on-wafer tests, the pulsed power technique makes it possible to not only establish device binning criteria but also eliminate in-module bias tuning. It thus provides significant cost savings in volume production environments.