Identification procedures for the charge-controlled nonlinear noise model of microwave electron devices

The basic features of the recently proposed Charge-Controlled Non-linear Noise (CCNN) model for the prediction of low-to-high-frequency noise up-conversion in electron devices under large-signal RF operation are synthetically presented. It is shown that the different noise generation phenomena within the device can be described by four equivalent noise sources, which are connected at the ports of a "noiseless" device model and are non-linearly controlled by the time-varying instantaneous values of the intrinsic device voltages. For the empirical identification of the voltage-controlled equivalent noise sources, different possible characterization procedures, based not only on conventional low-frequency noise data, but also on different types of noise measurements carried out under large-signal RF operating conditions are discussed. As an example of application, the measurement-based identification of the CCNN model for a GaInP heterojunction bipolar microwave transistor is presented. Preliminary validation results show that the proposed model can describe with adequate accuracy not only the low-frequency noise of the HBT, but also its phase-noise performance in a prototype VCO implemented by using the same monolithic GaAs technology.