GaN

The technology underneath GaN

How GaAs enables green GaN performance
By Chris Day, technical director at TriQuint Semiconductor
expenses in the distribution network. While the increased operating voltage attributes of GaN technology are well described in industry publications, its application to the unique design challenges posed in doublers is a little vague. In actuality, technologies that operate at high voltages have been around for quite some time and continue to serve other markets well. Future cable systems will evolve to support higher upper frequencies beyond 1000 MHz in anticipation of DOCSIS 3.1. Future doublers will need to support these higher bandwidths and the extra gain to overcome the additional cable losses. Today, most GaAs doublers cover 870 or 1000 MHz of bandwidth with about 25 dB of gain. What separates GaN from other technologies in the cable market is its ability to operate at higher bias voltages without sacrificing other parameters such as restricted bandwidths. For any type of device technology, there is an unfortunate tradeoff between the voltage it can handle and how fast it can respond. More voltage capability begets a slower device and reduced bandwidth. In GaN technology, this tradeoff still occurs, but with a significant boost in design margin. Clearly, slower legacy devices dont match the trend to increased gain at higher frequencies. But more importantly, slower devices also suffer from lower output power at these higher frequencies because too much of the desired RF signal goes into charging and discharging internal device capacitances rather than into the output load. GaN technology provides relief by allowing much faster devices without compromising the voltage-handling capability necessitated by 24-volt operation. To see how GaN benefits the designer, first consider a classical 24v GaAs (or silicon) doubler design (see Figure 1a). The doubler consists of two differential stages a simple pre-amp stage followed by an output cascode stage. For best output power, its preferable to bias the output transistors (Q3a and Q3b) with as much of the 24v supply as the device can withstand, often about one-half of the available 24v. The remaining 12v is then allocated to the bottom devices in the cascode stage (Q2a and Q2b), and bias current is then reclaimed for use in the input stage. Enter the GaN doubler design (see

new device technology is creating significant disruption in RF infrastructure markets. By providing up to 3dB higher RF output level compared to devices made of other materials, notably gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride (GaN)-based components are quickly emerging as the technology of choice in cable networks. GaN devices provide a boost in the all-important breakdown voltage, a critical measure of a devices ability to carry RF voltage swings. But while GaN device characteristics make it ideal for handling high RF voltage swings in the top stage, an ultra-linear, high-transconductance bottom stage is a critical, but often overlooked, element in the use of GaN devices for the cable market. GaN devices may be combined with market-tested GaAs MESFET technologies to provide noteworthy increases in performance. By careful design of the combined cascode circuit, the breakdown advantages of GaN and the price/performance advantages of high-transconductance GaAs pHEMT can be optimized for superior output power, efficiency and cost.

Figure 1a: 24v common doubler design.

Doubler basics

Its difficult to browse through an RF trade magazine without coming across something espousing the benefits of GaN technology. Components utilizing GaN devices bring meaningful improvements in performance that reduce overall costs. In the cable arena, GaN-based output stages known as doublers provide the much-sought-after increase in RF output power that reduces capital and operating

Figure 1b: 24v GaN design.

E-mail: catv@tqs.com

www.CEDmagazine.commarch/april2013

29

GaN
Figure 1b). It consists of a pair of GaN FETs serving as output devices and a pair of lower-voltage but faster bottom FETs. It capitalizes on GaNs higher voltage capability to utilize a larger percentage of the available supply voltage in the devices. GaN devices consume about 20v of the available 24v, leaving a scant 4v for the bottom device and nothing left over for an input stage. For maximum efficiency, we want our output devices to operate with as much of the total bias available and into favorable output impedance. This ability to comfortably use the majority of the bias voltage is how GaN generates higher efficiencies and output power.

Figure 2: Desirable and typical transconductance profiles of bottom stages.

The power versus gain dilemma

Because there is little bias wasted in circuitry that cannot be used to drive the output, our GaN amplifier can be extremely efficient. In the cascode topology (see Figure 1b), only the bottom FET does not contribute to output RF voltage swing. In practice, a GaN amplifier designed for a 24v supply voltage can output 3dB more power than older-generation GaAs designs. The drawback to this scenario is there is no bias for an input stage, which renders the gain of the GaN amplifier deficient compared to GaAs doubler designs having a pre-amp stage. Ideally, one would replace a legacy 25dB gain doubler with an amplifier whose increase in output capability came with a corresponding increase in gain. Instead, with GaN, we get the opposite the increase in output level brings with it an undesirable decrease in gain precisely because the higheroutput RF swing came from the elimination of the input gain stage and the allocation of its bias voltage onto the GaN device. This skewing of output capability versus gain complicates application of GaN technology in cable infrastructure equipment. This GaN gain penalty is particularly problematic in the design of segmentable nodes. To support the legacy deployment case, where one forward path optical receiver services up to four node outputs, a four-way splitter is often used before the final doubler stage. If each node output is to be individu30 CEDmarch/april2013

ally tilted, a plug-in equalizer is needed on the input of each doubler. A driver stage must overcome the loss of the splitter and power each of four equalizers under a more difficult flat channel loading. Because the doubler gain is reduced, the driver has to provide much higher performance than before, driving up cost and power usage. The situation would be improved with a higher-gain GaN amplifier. In other equipment designs, realizing the benefits of GaN would be simplified by maximizing the gain of the amplifier.

The bottom device

In practice, the gain of the GaN-based amplifier is dominated by the bottom device in the cascode that runs at a much lower voltage, and not by the top GaN FET itself. Thats because the bottom devices, which comprise the transconductance stage, provide the critical voltageto-current function that dictates voltage gain in the cascode structure. The top devices simply pass transconductance stage gain through to the output and handle the resulting large RF voltage without burdening the bottom stage with high-voltage swings. While GaN FETs perform this transfer function without the bandwidth limitations that plagued older technologies, they do not provide current gain in the cascode topology. The importance of the bottom device in the cascode is further accentuated when distortion is taken into account. The voltage-to-current conversion they provide is often the dominant source of distortions that cause artifacts plaguing equipment designers and system architects.

Ideally, a bottom device would provide a large transconductance gain without adding distortion. Figure 2 shows a desirable bottom stage differential stage a very high transconductance that is extremely flat over a wide input voltage range. Devices with flatter transconductance characteristics have lower distortion because the gain deviation with input voltage swing is less. Devices with a wide flat region in their transconductance profile can also deliver higher RF output powers before signal compression takes place. Quite often, distortion leads to bit errors in QAM signals. These distortion mechanisms are becoming increasingly important as the industry considers higher levels of QAM modulation having less tolerance for signal distortion before errors accumulate. So the bottom device not only sets the gain of the GaN cascode, it also plays a key role in how much output power it can support in emerging applications. PHEMT (pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor) FETs are one of the highest-transconductance technologies available for RF applications. And pHEMTs are widely used as LNA stages in mobile device and base station applications. They provide two to four times the transconductance gain over MESFET predecessors. Although now mature, pHEMT technology continues to evolve, with solid improvements in odd order linearity benefiting products that critically need wide dynamic range. Fortunately, mobile device applications that drive economies of scale have similar operating voltage and linearity requirements as in the bottom stage of the cascode. Consistently fabricating a device with these desirable at-

cated to the input stage to be redirected to the output stage, thereby improving overall efficiency. High gain pHEMT devices also impact designs running on non-24v supplies. Figure 3 shows a generic 12v two-stage amplifier cascade fabricated in lower-gain MESFET technology. The lower transconductance of MESFET necessitates a pre-amp stage to bring the Figure 3: 21dB 12v output design featuring improved combined gain to 21dB. output efficiency from input stage bias reclamation. However, using high-gain pHEMT devices, the same or higher gain can be realized in a single stage tributes is challenging. (see the bottom half of Figure 3). Some of A more typical characteristic that octhe bias current previously burned in the incurs is also shown in Figure 2, where the put stage can be redirected into an enlarged gain is lower and not as linear. Not all output device, simultaneously resulting in pHEMTs are equal in gain and linearity, net lower or green power consumption, and there are wide differences in transincreased output level, and lower cost. conductance characteristics between Optimum broadband power matching device fabricators and process variants. in the 12v scenario is best done with a balun Transconductance gains between pHEMT that is much easier to assemble, has superior types vary from 400mS per mm of FET insertion loss characteristics and has more gate length to as much as 900mS/mm. consistent impedance characteristics to the Feedback techniques such as source depossible higher frequencies envisioned by generation are available to flatten the gm DOCSIS 3.1. In this case, the technology profile but at penalty of lower gain. used in the top stage is not overly important Linearization may provide notable since it operates at a lower 8v bias and into improvement by systematically cancellower broadband impedance. Many lowling odd order terms, and if properly cost and reasonably fast technologies can designed, will not adversely burden the service this requirement. net gain or bias current. Even with the benefits of linearization at their disposal, Continued progress ahead a designer is well served by starting with Whether a 24v or 12v system supply is a high-gain linear bottom device. used, the point remains the same. What faImprovements in doubler output powcilitates improvements in overall network er result from the combination of techefficiency is the availability of high-gain nologies in the cascode topology GaN linear pHEMT technologies operating in on top and pHEMT on bottom. conjunction with suitable top devices. There is nothing mysterious about For high-performance applications, GaN GaN it simply enables a larger percenttop devices combined with pHEMTs can set age of a 24v supply voltage to be utilized in new marks for sheer RF output level. the output RF voltage signal swing without For green applications, legacy the bandwidth penalty posed by older MESFET top devices work with pHEMTs devices. However, without the linear high to provide new levels of GaAs output pertransconductance of pHEMT, the benformance and efficiency at a lower cost. efits of GaN would be difficult to capture In each case, pHEMT technology is a key due to gain shortcomings. And pHEMT determinant of overall performance. n technology allows the bias previously allo-

its time to wow your subscribers again.

SOFT BOX GATEWAY

Delivering your branded video experience to every device in subscribers' homes.

www.schange.com

www.CEDmagazine.commarch/april2013

31