Investigation of HPM Susceptibility Levels on Low Noise Amplifiers

This paper describes tests procedure and initial results from HPM susceptibility measurements on LNAs (Low Noise Amplifiers). HPM injection measurements have been done on several LNAs. The destruction levels of the LNAs were investigated by changing different input parameters, such as pulse width, biasing, in-band/out-of band frequencies etc. The results show that there is an up to 9 dB difference in power failure level, depending on the input parameters. In addition the permanent damage power level of an LNA was also found to vary with the type of semiconductor process used (for example, in this case both GaAs LNAs as well as a SiGe BiCMOS based LNA have been tested) and the dimensions of the transistors i.e. gate length and width.