X-parameter measurement on a GaN HEMT device: Complexity reduction study of load-pull characterization test setup

Characterization of power transistors is an indispensable step in the design of radio frequency and microwave power amplifiers. A full harmonic load-pull measurement setup is normally required for the accurate and comprehensive characterization of RF power transistors. The setup is usually highly complex, leading to a relatively high hardware cost and low measurement throughput. This paper presents X-parameter measurement on a gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistor and studies the potential of utilizing an X-parameter-based modeling technique to highly reduce the complexity of the harmonic load-pull measurement setup for transistor characterization. During the X-parameter measurement and characterization, load impedance of the device is tuned and controlled only at the fundamental frequency and is left uncontrolled at other higher harmonics. However, it proves preliminarily that the extracted X-parameters can still predict the behavior of the device with moderate to high accuracy, when the load impedance is tuned up to the third-order harmonic frequency. It means that a fundamental-only load-pull test setup is already enough even though the device is to be characterized under load tuning up to the third-order harmonic frequency, by utilizing X-parameters.