Active device loads for monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) ha
ve been extensively studied and a new procedure for the extraction of their
equivalent circuit has been developed. The procedure requires the availabi
lity of a coplanar three-terminal device for accurate model extraction. The
new procedure is accurate, general, and easy to apply. Its validity has be
en demonstrated by extracting a scalable bias-dependent small-signal equiva
lent circuit of PHEMT-based active device loads up to 40 GHz. A good agreem
ent between measured and modeled data has been obtained, confirming the val
idity and the accuracy of the proposed method.