SENSITIVITY-BASED OPTIMIZATION AND STATISTICAL-ANALYSIS OF MICROWAVE SEMICONDUCTOR-DEVICES THROUGH MULTIDIMENSIONAL PHYSICAL SIMULATION

A new, efficient approach to the sensitivity analysis of majority carr ier and bipolar microwave semiconductor devices based on multidimensio nal physical models is discussed. The approach is exploited in the par ametric optimization and statistical analysis of microwave semiconduct or devices. The present technique is based on Branin's method for the sensitivity analysis of electrical networks. With respect to the adjoi nt method, formerly proposed for the sensitivity analysis of majority- carrier devices, the new approach enables the straightforward treatmen t of bipolar physical models. Some examples of application concerning GaAs microwave FET's are presented: the gradient-based parametric opti mization of the doping profile so as to obtain maximum linearity and t he statistical characterization of the electrical device response on t he basis of the statistical spread of technological parameters, which is an intermediate step in yield-driven MMIC optimization based on phy sical models. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.