Temperature-Dependent Characterization of Power Amplifiers Using an Efficient Electrothermal Analysis Technique

In this article, we propose an efficient methodology for the electrothermal characterization of power amplifier (PA) integrated circuits. The proposed electrothermal analysis method predicts the effect of temperature variations on the key performances of PAs, such as gain and linearity, under realistic dynamic operating conditions. A comprehensive technique for identifying an equivalent compact thermal model (CTM), using data from 3-D finite element method thermal simulation and nonlinear curve fitting algorithms, is described. Two efficient methods for electrothermal analysis applying the developed CTM are reported. The validity of the methods is evaluated using commercially available electrothermal computer-aided design (CAD) tools and through extensive pulsed RF signal measurements of a PA device under test. The measurement results confirm the validity of the proposed electrothermal analysis methods. The proposed methods show significantly faster simulation speed compared with available CAD tools for electrothermal analysis. Moreover, the results reveal the importance of electrothermal characterization in the prediction of the temperature-aware PA dynamic operation.