Turn up the Heat! Awr Connectedtm: an Electrical-thermal Mmic Design Flow

Electronic circuit design typically begins with an assumption that the components are operating at ambient temperature. Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) design, in particular, violates this as the DC current fl owing through the ever-shrinking devices induces heating to two, three, or even four times greater temperature (in oC). Such a large departure from assumed room temperature behavior impacts phase, gain, effi ciency, noise, and intermodulation distortion. Circuit designers need tools with integrated electrical-thermal analysis to address these performance issues.