A Robust on-Wafer Large Signal Transistor Characterization Method at mm-Wave Frequency

Accurate on-wafer large signal characterization of RF transistor is crucial for the optimum design of wireless communication circuits. We report a novel and systematic measurement method for the accurate acquisition of input and output power of on-wafer transistors up to 40GHz. This method employs external couplers to extract the travelling waves, combined with a novel large signal calibration algorithm to calculate the power at on-wafer probe tip. The accuracy of this method was bench marked versus conventional approaches in a real measurement bench, and further been verified by characterizing the large signal response of a 0.25μm GaN HEMT device. It is concluded that the measurement uncertainty has been greatly decreased with this new method, especially at mm-wave frequencies.