Semiconductor device and circuit with dynamic control of electric field

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9515644-B2
Application number	US-201414286418-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2014
Priority date	May 23, 2013
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A circuit, comprising a semiconductor device with one or more field gate terminals for controlling the electric field in a drift region of the semiconductor device; and a feedback circuit configured to dynamically control a bias voltage or voltages applied to the field gate terminal or terminals, with different control voltages used for different semiconductor device characteristics in real-time in response to a time-varying signal at a further node in the circuit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A circuit, comprising:
a semiconductor device with one or more field gate terminals configured to control an electric field in a drift region of the semiconductor device, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a bipolar transistor having base, collector, and emitter terminals; and
a feedback circuit configured to dynamically control one or more bias voltages applied to the one or more field gate terminals, with different control voltages used for different semiconductor device characteristics in real-time in response to a time-varying signal at the collector terminal.

2. The circuit as defined in claim 1 , wherein the one or more field gate terminals are configured to dynamically control the electric field in a collector region.

3. The circuit as defined in claim 1 , wherein the time-varying signal used by the feedback circuit to control the one or more bias voltages comprises a collector-emitter voltage.

4. The circuit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the feedback circuit comprises an inverter connected between an output of the semiconductor device and the field gate terminal.

5. The circuit as defined in claim 1 , wherein the feedback circuit is configured to determine the one or more bias voltages based on a time varying load mismatch signal.

6. The circuit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the real-time control is dynamically applied at a frequency of operation of the semiconductor device.

7. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the emitter terminal is located in a substrate of the semiconductor device.

8. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the emitter terminal is located in a layer above a substrate of the semiconductor device.

9. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more field gate terminals are configured to dynamically suppress a peak electric field in the collector terminal.

10. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more field gate terminals are configured to control a breakdown voltage of the bipolar transistor.

11. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more field gate terminals are configured to control a cut-off frequency of the bipolar transistor.

12. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the bipolar transistor further comprises a substrate contact.

13. The circuit of claim 1 , further comprising:
a choke inductor coupled between a power supply and the bipolar transistor.

14. The circuit of claim 1 , wherein the time-varying signal used by the feedback circuit to control the one or more bias voltages comprises a base-collector voltage.

15. A radio frequency (RF) power amplifier comprising the circuit as claimed in claim 1 .

16. An electronic device including the circuit of claim 1 .

17. A method of controlling a semiconductor device comprising one or more field gate terminals for controlling an electric field in a drift region of the semiconductor device, wherein the method comprises:
dynamically controlling a bias voltage applied to the one or more field gate terminals to achieve different transistor characteristics in real-time in response to a time-varying signal at a collector terminal by a feedback circuit, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a bipolar transistor having base, collector, and emitter terminals.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17 , further comprising:
dynamically controlling the bias voltage applied to the field gate terminal in dependence on a collector-emitter voltage of the bipolar transistor.

Assignees

• Nxp Bv

Inventors

• Dinh Viet Thanh
• Hurxk Godefridus Antonius Maria
• Vanhoucke Tony
• Slotboom Jan Willem
• Heringa Anco
• Zahariev Ivan
• Gridelet Evelyne

Classifications

• H03K17/10 Primary

  Modifications for increasing the maximum permissible switched voltage · CPC title

• H03F3/19

  with semiconductor devices only · CPC title

• G05F1/462

  as a function of the requirements of the load, e.g. delay, temperature, specific voltage/current characteristic · CPC title

• H03F3/21

  with semiconductor devices only {(H03F3/245 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H03F2200/153

  Feedback used to stabilise the amplifier · CPC title