Tracking Advances In Solid-State Power

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[Devices & ICs]
Tracking Advances In Solid-State Power
Suppliers of high-power transistors continue to improve on processing and packaging as new devices show improvements in power density, linearity, and efficiency.

Jack Browne | ED Online ID #5539 | July 2003

Transistor developers continue to push for higher power levels from a single die or package, but not to the exclusion of other performance parameters. Especially for commercial communications applications, device designers now emphasize improved linearity and efficiency so that amplifier designers can create smaller and lighter units for mobile radios and compact base stations. What follows is a sampling of recent developments in RF and microwave power transistors.

Several device announcements were made at the recent IEEE Microwave Theory & Techniques Symposium (MTT-S, June 10-12, Philadelphia, PA), including the launch of several high-voltage high-frequency (HF) MOSFET devices by Advanced Power Technology RF (www.advancedpower.com). Both are nominally intended for HF amplifiers and RF plasma generators at frequencies from 1.5 to 30 MHz. The ARF465A/B, for example, dissipates as much as 250 W power and generates as much as 125 W output power when operating with a +300-VDC supply. The larger model ARF1505 dissipates as much as 1500 W power and generates output levels to 750 W CW from a +300-VDC supply. The rugged design features a power density of 700 W/in.²

At the show, the company also announced two new lateral-diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistors for pulsed avionics and radar applications, the 110-W peak-power model 1011LD110 and the 200-W peak-power model 1011LD200. The +32-VDC transistors offer gain levels of 13 and 12 dB, respectively, over the 1030-to-1090-MHz Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) avionics band.

Advanced Semiconductor (www.advancedsemiconductor.com) features a wide range of CW and pulsed RF power transistors, including a wide range for DME/TACAN avionics applications from 1025 to 1150 MHz. Several devices with internal input and output matching networks offer output-power levels of 250 W and more, including the 400-W model AVD400 and the 500-W model AVD500. These +50-VDC parts both feature minimum efficiency of 40 percent with respective gains of 6.5 and 5.6 dB.

Philips Semiconductors (www.semiconductors.philips.com) is a long-time supplier of high-power transistors, and features several RF bipolar models for TACAN and JTIDS avionics applications (roughly 960 to 1215 MHz), including the models MX0912B251Y and the MX0912B351Y. The former features 275 W of pulsed output power while the latter produces 375 W of pulsed output power. Both devices yield 7.5-dB gain at 45-percent efficiency.

Another veteran device supplier, M/A-COM (Tyco Electronics), offers both power bipolar and MOSFET devices for a wide range of applications, including the model PH1090-700B bipolar transistor for pulsed avionics applications. The gold-metalized, ceramic-packaged device delivers 700 W of pulsed (32-µs pulses at a 2-percent duty cycle) output power from 1030 to 1090 MHz. The +65-VDC device features 7.5-dB power gain with 50-percent collector efficiency.

Additional high-power silicon transistor suppliers include Polyfet RF Devices (www.polyfet.com) and Point Nine Technologies (www.pointnine.com). Polyfet's model SR401 is a +28-VDC push-pull transistor capable of 300 W output power at 175 MHz. The transistor features 13 dB gain and 55-percent efficiency.

Point Nine's model C203, one of the company's line of TetraFET devices, is usable to 1 GHz. The silicon DMOS device employs gold metalization to gain 100 W output power from a +28-VDC supply. The rugged transistor achieves 10 dB gain with 40-percent drain efficiency. Another of the company's TetraFETs, the model D1027, provides 200 W output power at frequencies from DC to 300 MHz. The +28-VDC transistor generates 17 dB gain with 50-percent efficiency.

"Plastic" was the key word at the Motorola (www.motorola.com) booth during the show, as the company unveiled several plastic-packaged MOSFETs, including the MRF5S9101MR1 which is designed for applications to 1 GHz. The device yields 105 W 1-dB-compression CW output power at 960 MHz with 16.5 dB gain and 56-percent efficiency. Capable of operating at +26 or +28 VDC, the device is well suited for GSM base-station applications, with error-vector-magnitude (EVM) performance of 3 percent.

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