Abstract

We present an efficient simulation technique to account for the thermal spreading effects of surface metallizations in the self-consistent dynamic electro-thermal analysis of power microwave devices. Electro-thermal self-consistency is achieved by solving the coupled nonlinear system made of a temperature dependent device electrical model, and of an approximate description of the device thermal behavior through a thermal impedance matrix. The numerical solution is pursued in the frequency domain by the Harmonic Balance technique. The approach is applied to the thermal stability analysis of power AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs and the results show that metallizations have a significant impact on the occurrence of the device thermal collapse.