Hot Carrier Injection Compensation

• US 20150280655A1
• Filed: 04/01/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: pSemi Corporation (Murata Manufacturing Co Limited)
• Original Assignee: Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation (Murata Manufacturing Co Limited)
• Inventors: Nobbe, Dan William, Olson, Chris, Kovac, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,419,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/30 Modifications of amplifiers to reduce influence of variations of temperature or supply voltage or other physical parameters in differential amplifiers H03F3/45479
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 1/301 in MOSFET amplifiers H03F1/303, H03F1/305, H03F1/308 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/18 the bias of the gate of a FET being controlled by a control signal
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/451 the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/456 A scaled replica of a transistor being present in an amplifier
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/471 the voltage being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 2200/555 A voltage generating circuit being realised for biasing different circuit elements
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/04 with semiconductor devices only
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/193 with field-effect devices H03F3/195 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/195 in integrated circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/21 with semiconductor devices only H03F3/245 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03F 3/213 in integrated circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/18 Input circuits, e.g. for coupling to an antenna or a transmission line coupling networks between antennas or lines and receivers independent of the nature of the receiver H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/44 Transmit/receive switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/525 with means for reducing leakage of transmitter signal into the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/005 Reducing noise, e.g. humm, from the supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/12 of transmit antennas, e.g. of the amplitude or phase
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/015 Reducing echo effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/02 Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas RAKE receivers H04B1/7115
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/20 Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits

Abstract

Methods and devices are described for compensating an effect of aging due to, for example, hot carrier injection, or other device degradation mechanisms affecting a current flow, in an RF amplifier. In one case a replica circuit is used to sense the aging of the RF amplifier and adjust a biasing of the RF amplifier accordingly.

Claims

1. A radio frequency (RF) amplifier arrangement comprising:

a first transistor stack configured, during operation, to amplify an RF signal at an input gate of the first transistor stack and provide an amplified version of the RF signal at an output terminal of the first transistor stack;

a second transistor stack configured, during operation, to amplify the RF signal at an input gate of the second transistor stack and provide an amplified version of the RF signal at an output terminal of the second transistor stack;

a first switch operatively connected between the output terminal of the first transistor stack and the output terminal of the second transistor stack, the first switch being configured, during operation, to provide a short or an open between the output terminals of the first and second transistor stacks;

a second switch operatively connected between the output terminal of the second transistor stack and a first terminal of a resistor, the second switch being configured, during operation, to provide a short or an open between the output terminal of the second transistor stack and the first terminal of the resistor, and

a bias control module operatively connected to the first terminal of the resistor via an input sense terminal of the bias control module and operatively connected to the input gate of the first transistor stack and the input gate of the second transistor stack via an output terminal of the bias control module.

2. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 1, wherein during operation, the RF amplifier arrangement is configured to operate in one of at least two selectable modes of operation, comprising:

a) a normal mode and b) a sense mode,

wherein;

during the sense mode of operation, the first switch is open and the second switch is closed, and the bias control module is configured to compare a voltage at its input sense terminal in correspondence of a current flow through the resistor and the second transistor stack to a reference voltage in correspondence of a desired second-stack current flow through the resistor and the second transistor stack, and generate an adjusted bias voltage at its output terminal such as to obtain the desired second-stack current flow through the resistor and second transistor stack, and

during the normal mode of operation, the first switch is closed and the second switch is open, and the bias control module is configured to provide the adjusted bias voltage to the first transistor stack and the second transistor stack, wherein the adjusted bias voltage is adapted to generate a desired first-stack current flow through the first transistor stack and the desired second-stack current flow through the second transistor stack.

3. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 1, wherein the first and the second transistor stacks comprise field effect transistors (FETs).

4. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the first transistor stack and the second transistor stack comprise a same stack height.

5. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 4, wherein the same stack height is one.

6. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 4, wherein a ratio of a size of the first transistor stack to a size of the second transistor stack is about 100 or more, such as a current flow and a power consumption of the second transistor stack is about 1/100^th or less of a current flow and power consumption of the first transistor stack.

7. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 6, wherein the second transistor stack is a reduced-size replica of the first transistor stack.

8. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 7, wherein the first transistor stack and the second transistor stack are monolithically integrated on a same integrated circuit.

9. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 7, wherein the RF amplifier arrangement is monolithically integrated on a same integrated circuit partially or in its entirety.

10. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 8 fabricated using a technology comprising one of:

a) silicon on sapphire, b) silicon on insulator, and c) bulk-silicon.

11. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 9 fabricated using a technology comprising one of:

a) silicon on sapphire, b) silicon on insulator, and c) bulk-silicon.

12. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 2, wherein selection of the mode of operation is performed by a signal-aware controller unit according to a presence or an absence of an RF signal at the input gate of the first and the second transistor stacks.

13. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 12, wherein operation in the sense mode coincides with one of a) no existence of an RF signal at the input gate of the first and second transistor stacks, and b) existence of an RF signal at the input gate of the first and the second transistor stacks.

14. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 13, further comprising a switch configured, during operation in the sense mode which coincides with a), to reduce a current flow through the first transistor stack.

15. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 14, wherein the switch is configured, during operation of the RF amplifier arrangement, to provide one of at least two bias voltages to transistors of the first transistor stack other than an input transistor in correspondence of the input gate of the first transistor stack.

16. A radio frequency (RF) amplifier arrangement comprising:

a first transistor stack;

a second transistor stack, the second transistor stack being a reduced-size replica of the first transistor stack, and

a bias control module configured, during operation, to provide a bias voltage in correspondence of a first-stack bias current and a second-stack bias current of the first and second transistor stacks.

17. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 16, wherein, during operation, the RF amplifier arrangement is configured to operate in one of at least two modes of operation, comprising a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, wherein:

during a first mode of operation of the RF amplifier arrangement, the bias control module is further configured to measure the second-stack bias current and generate an adjusted bias voltage, wherein the adjusted bias voltage is in correspondence of a desired second-stack bias current, and

during a second mode of operation of the RF amplifier arrangement, the bias control module is configured to provide the adjusted bias voltage to the first and the second transistor stacks, wherein the adjusted bias voltage is in correspondence of a desired first-stack bias current and the desired second-stack bias current.

18. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 17, further comprising a first switch, wherein, during the first mode of operation, the first switch is configured to decouple an output RF signal of the RF amplifier arrangement from the bias control module.

19. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 18, wherein an output RF signal of the RF amplifier arrangement is a combined output of the first and the second transistor stacks during the second mode of operation and wherein the output RF signal of the RF amplifier arrangement is an output of the first transistor stack during the first mode of operation.

20. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 19, wherein the combined output is provided via a second switch, wherein the second switch is configured to provide a short between the output of the first transistor stack and an output of the second transistor stack during the second mode of operation, and to provide an open between the output of the first transistor stack and the output of the second transistor stack during the first mode of operation.

21. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 20, further comprising a resistor coupled to the bias control module, wherein during operation, the resistor is configured to provide a voltage representative of the second-stack bias current to the bias control module.

22. The RF amplifier arrangement of claim 16 or claim 17, wherein a stack height of the first transistor stack and the second transistor stack is one.

23. A method for compensating drift of a bias current in a radio frequency amplifier, the method comprising:

providing a first transistor stack;

providing a second transistor stack, the second transistor stack being a reduced-size replica of the first transistor stack;

providing a bias voltage to the first and the second transistor stacks in correspondence of a desired first-stack bias current and a desired second-stack bias current of the first and second transistor stacks;

coupling the first and second transistor stacks in parallel to provide an amplified RF signal from a common input RF signal;

measuring a drift in current of the second-stack bias current;

based on the measuring, adjusting the bias voltage to the first and the second transistor stacks, and

based on the adjusting, compensating the drift in current of the first-stack and the second-stack bias currents.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the measuring further comprises:

decoupling an output of the first transistor stack from an output of the second transistor stack;

comparing a reference voltage in correspondence of the desired second-stack current to a voltage in correspondence of an actual second-stack current, and

based on the comparing, measuring the drift in current of the second-stack bias current.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the coupling the first and the second transistor stacks in parallel causes a same stress to transistors of the first and the second transistor stacks.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the stress causes a hot carrier injection (HCI) effect and wherein the adjusting compensates the HCI effect over the radio frequency amplifier.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein a ratio between a size of the first transistor stack and a size of the second transistor stack is about 100:

1 or greater.