Sheet 1 of 5

Microwave Bipolar/FET Bias circuits

RF/Microwave transistors/FETs require some form of circuit to set the correct bias conditions for a particular RF performance. There are two main types used an active current mirror and a passive self-bias circuit. The main purpose of the bias circuit is to maintain the drain/collector current regardless of any drift in the DC current gain of the GAsFET/Bipolar. In the case of a GAsFET, over time the transconductance falls, with a resulting drop in the bias current. The Sparameters of a device are fixed and dont age so long as the correct bias current is maintained. A drop in bias current, over life, will cause the RF device gain and output power to fall. A reduction in the gain of the device in the oscillator may cause oscillation to stop at the band edges where the open loop gain falls off.
R1

+Vcc Rd

Vds

R2

RF/Microwave MESFet
R3

-Vee

Figure 1 Showing the Active current mirror using a negative bias to supply a negative voltage to the RF/Microwave MESFET. The circuit keeps the drain current constant regardless to the value of gm in the MESFET which falls over life and would under fixed bias cause the drain current to fall. The resistor network R1 & R2 set the Drain voltage applied to the FET ie

(1) Active current Mirror - FET The Bias circuit (Shown in Figure 1) works by adjusting the gate voltage to maintain a particular value of drain current. If the drain current falls (say due to a fall in gm) then the current flowing through the PNP transistor to the negative rail will increase. An increase in the current through the collector resistor will cause a larger potential difference across the resistor w.r.t to the negative rail the voltage at the other end of the resistor (connected to the FET gate) will also increase ie go more positive. A more positive voltage on the FET gate will cause a larger drain current to flow so eventually stabilising the circuit and maintaining a constant current to the FET.

Assume R1 = 3K3 , Vbe = 0.6V and Vcc = 5V R1 (Vds - 0.6) = .5 rearrange for R1 R1 + R2

R1 =

1584 5 5 = = = 3K05 (Vds - 0.6) 1 - (3 - 0.6) 0.52 15 5

(Vds - 0.6) .R1 (3 - 0.6) .3300

Calculation of the drain resistor is given by:-

R2 Vcc - .(Vcc + Vbe) R1 + R2 Rds = Ids + Isense 3300 5 - .(5 + 0.6) 3000 + 3300 = 129 = 15E 3 + 1E 3

Sheet 2 of 5

A bias current of about 1mA is allowed to flow through R3, which sets the gate voltage on the FET. Figure 2 shows an ADS simulation of the active bias circuit. The DC simulator allows all the node voltages and currents to be calculated. After simulation the Annotate DC Solution is selected which adds all the calculated currents and voltages to be added to the schematic as shown and agrees with the calculated resistors values previously.
R V_DC R5 SRC2 R=3000 Vdc=5 V ap_pnp_2N2907A_1993060 Q2
R R7 R=129

Vcc Rc

R1

Vc

Ic
R2
RF/M icrowave Bipolar

R3

ap_pnp_2N2907A_1993060 Q1
R R4 R=3300

DC
DC DC1

R R6 R=100

I_Probe Ic
DC_Feed DC_Feed2

R R8 R=4700

DC_Feed DC_Feed1

V_DC SRC3 Vdc=-5 V

pf_nec_NE67383_1992121 A1

Figure 3 An active current mirror for biasing a RF/Microwave bipolar transistor. The circuit is similar in operation to that of the MESFet accept that a negative bias is not required for the RF/Microwave bipolar base. The voltage across R3 is constant ie Vbe ~0.65V The circuit provide a current source for the transistor base used to maintain a constant collector current Ic.

(3) Passive Self-Bias Circuit MESFet

Figure 2 ADS DC simulation of an active current mirror bias circuit using the resistor values calculated in the previous example. In practice the DC feeds need to be realised from inductors or inductive micro-strip line to isolate the RF signals around the MESFET from leaking into the bias circuit causing certain signal loss and possible instability.

An alternative to the active current mirror for biasing is self-bias. This technique uses the RF device itself to provide DC regulation. MESFets are N-type depletion devices and hence require a small negative bias applied to the gate-source junction to obtain a particular drain current. The circuit below sets the gate at ground but a small resistor (Rs) is placed between the source and ground. Therefore, as current flows through the source resistor (Rs) the voltage on the source will be greater than ground and hence greater than the gate. This means that a negative gatesource bias is still applied. The drain resistor is selected to drop a particular voltage across the resistor (Rd) to set Vds for a particular drain current (Ids). This circuit works well and is simple however the there is a problem with RF grounding the source correctly. Ideally the source needs to be grounded for all frequencies right up at the package, however this is not possible as the source leads will needs to be glued/soldered to a metallised pad this length of pad will add series inductance to the source. Addition of series inductance will modify the S-parameters

(2) Active current Mirror Bipolar The active current mirror for biasing a RF/Microwave bipolar transistor (as shown in figure 3) is very similar in operation to that of the MESFet current mirror except that the loop gain resistor R3 is connected to ground and not a negative bias. There will be a constant voltage across R3 due to the vbe of the RF Bipolar but the collector current will be maintained by varying the current drawn by the RF Bipolar base junction. (In the MESFet the drain current is maintained by varying the gate bias voltage).

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of the device and may cause the device to be unstable at a particular frequency. As there is a series resistor in this bias configuration the source can only be grounded via a capacitor. Unfortunately capacitors are not ideal as they will add series inductance due to their electrical length and may be resonant at a particular frequency making the source effectively open-circuit giving rise to instability. Figure 4 Shows the circuit diagram of the FET self-bias circuit.
Vcc Rd

Circuit Analysis Example The formula for calculating the drain current of the MESFet (Ids) is given:

FET current formula -

Ids = (vgs)gm + Idss

Where gm = transcondu ctance (mS) vgs = gate to source potential (-ve V ) Idss = Saturated drain current (vgs = 0V) Ids = drain current (mA) Using data sheet values for the NEC NE67384 & rearrangin g formula for vgs, we need to find the value of vgs to give a drain current of 10mA.

Vds
vgs =

RF/Microwave MESFet Vgs Source decoupling capacitor Rs

Ids - Idss gm

10 - 40 = - 0.6V 50

Therefore value of Rs = vgs/Ids = 0.6/10E - 3 = 60 Value of Rd (Assuming Vds = 3V) = Vcc - Vds 5-3 = = 200 Ids 10E - 3

Figure 4 Passive self-bias circuit. The Source de-coupling capacitor is required to ensure that there is a RF ground on the FET source, which can be a problem when an RF ground is required over a wide range of frequencies to ensure RF stability.

Unfortunately, with this circuit we need to accurately know the gm and Idss of the device in order to predict the gate voltage required to give a specific drain current and hence what value resistor to fit to the source lead. Figure 5 shows the ADS DC simulation of a self-bias circuit showing that the required source resistor for a drain current of 10mA was 22ohms (ie a gate voltage of 0.22V compared to the calculated 0.6V derived from the device data sheet). Unlike the active current mirror the initial setup and resistor values are dependant on the gm and Idss of the FET, while these are irrelevant to the active current mirror.

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V_DC SRC2 Vdc=5 V

I_Probe Ic

Vcc Vcc R1 Rc

DC_Feed DC_Feed2

Vce RF/Microwave

DC
DC DC1

R R2 R=200 Ohm

R2
pf_nec_NE67383_19921216 A1 R R1 R=23 Ohm

Vbe Re

Bipolar

Emitter decoupling capacitor

Figure 5 ADS circuit schematic of the FET self-bias circuit with a DC simulator box. The simulation was run and the circuit annotated with the nodal DC bias conditions. The realisation of the DC feed for RF frequencies is talked about later. Such a DC feed would also be used on the FET gate to ground it.

(4) Passive Self-Bias Circuit Bipolar The circuit for the Bipolar self-bias circuit is shown in figure 6. Here R1 and R2 form a potential divider, which will fix the base potential of the transistor. The current through this bias chain is usually set at 10 times greater than the base current required by the transistor. The base emitter voltage drop of the transistor is approximated as 0.6 volt. There will also be a voltage drop across the emitter resistor, Re, this is generally set to about 10% of the supply voltage. The inclusion of this resistor also helps to stabilize the bias: If the temperature increases, then extra collector current will flow. If Ic increases, then so will Ie as Ie = Ib + Ic.

Figure 6 Passive self-bias circuit for a bipolar transistor. The resistor Rc may be omitted or substituted by an inductor (choke). The Emitter decoupling capacitor is required as most devices are characterised with the emitter RF grounded and to ensure RF stability The Resistor will add inductance between the emitter and ground. The emitter decoupling capacitor is also known as a de-generating capacitor as without it the gain of the circuit would be the ratio of Rc and Re. The capacitor bypasses the emitter by adding a small parallel AC impedance such the gain of the circuit will the ratio of Rc and this AC impedance. (5) Supplying bias to the device All the examples have assumed an ideal DC feed to the RF device. What is required is a low DC resistance but a high RF resistance to ensure that the RF circuit is not loaded and RF signals do not flow onto the supply lines (Where they could find their way back onto the input of the RF device causing gain ripple and possibly instability). At lower frequencies (up to ~1.5GHz) the RF bias consists of a inductor followed by a shunt capacitor. The inductor chokes any RF signal, in other words the RF circuit sees an open circuit looking into the inductor. The capacitor shorts out any RF leakage through the inductor. However, at very low frequencies where RF devices have high gain the inductor will appear as a short circuit, ie will appear invisible to the RF circuit. What the RF circuit will see however is the short circuit of the capacitor. A short circuit applied to the RF

The extra current flow through Re increases the voltage drop across this resistor reducing the effective base emitter voltage and therefore stabilizing the collector current.

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circuit may cause instability as devices are only guaranteed to be stable in a 50-ohm system. This can be improved by adding a 50ohm resistor in series with the inductor so that at low frequencies the RF circuit will see at least 50 ohms. Figure 7 shows the bias circuit configurations.
Decoupling capacitor DC bias

Inductor Choke

50-ohms

RF device

Figure 7 RF Bias circuit arrangement. The resistor provides a 50 ohm load to the RF transistor at low frequencies (this resistor is omitted on the RF bias circuit for the output of the RF device.