Displacement Damage Effects Mitigation Approach for Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor Frequency Synthesizers

Abstract

This work focuses on the design issues of radio frequency (RF) bipolar integrated circuits (ICs) as a part of frequency synthesizers for extreme environmental applications. It is shown that silicon–germanium (SiGe) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) as well as bipolar RF ICs (including frequency dividers, voltage-controlled oscillators, and wide-band amplifiers) are highly sensitive to ambient temperature and radiation-induced displacement damage. This article also presents a design approach based on specialized HBT macromodels and hardening techniques.