JP6303398B2 - Semiconductor device energization device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an energization device for a semiconductor element.

  Conventionally, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-5-315857, a device including a high-frequency amplifier and an impedance matching circuit is known.

JP-A-5-315857 JP-A-8-37433 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-65465

  An energization device may be used for verifying the manufacturing process and reliability of a semiconductor element. Specifically, a so-called burn-in in which a high-frequency semiconductor element (a semiconductor element to be energized) being manufactured is set in the energization device and high-frequency power is applied may be performed. Thereby, stabilization of element characteristics, screening, estimation of element lifetime, and the like can be performed.

  A conventional energization device incorporates a semiconductor amplification device (specifically, a high frequency amplifier) for the purpose of amplifying a high frequency signal from an oscillator. As this semiconductor amplifying device, a device manufactured by a high-frequency semiconductor element manufacturer is generally used. In this case, when designing a current-carrying device, it is usual to select a semiconductor amplifying device so as to obtain a necessary amplifying performance in accordance with the performance (so-called catalog value) presented by the high-frequency semiconductor element manufacturer.

  In general, a semiconductor amplifying device having a high output signal level is likely to be more expensive than a semiconductor amplifying device having a low output signal level. This is because the higher the output signal level, the higher the cost because the internal semiconductor amplifying element becomes larger. Therefore, the higher the signal level handled by the energization device, the more expensive the high-power semiconductor amplification device has to be used.

  By the way, in view of the application of performing the burn-in described above, the energization device may output a specific frequency signal. In other words, it is not necessary to obtain a good output in a wide frequency range in the energization device, and it is only necessary to obtain a necessary output only in a certain narrow frequency range. This is a special point of the current-carrying device, unlike the case where the semiconductor amplifying device is applied in addition to the current-carrying device. The inventor of the present application pays attention to this point, and has found a novel energization device capable of suppressing the increase in cost of the semiconductor amplifying device accompanying the increase in output.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor element energization device capable of obtaining a high cost-suppressing effect.

A current-carrying device for a semiconductor element according to the present invention is:
An oscillator,
A first amplification unit for amplifying the output of the oscillator;
A connector electrically connected to the output side of the first amplification unit;
A termination resistor for connection to the output side of the energized semiconductor element to be connected to the connector;
With
The first amplification unit includes:
A semiconductor amplifying device comprising: a first semiconductor amplifying element; and an internal matching circuit that matches the impedance of each of the input side and the output side of the first semiconductor amplifying element to a characteristic impedance;
A first external matching circuit is provided, et al, respectively on the input side and output side of the semiconductor amplifying device,
Only including,
The semiconductor amplification device is constructed according to a predetermined specification,
The specification has a first frequency characteristic in which the semiconductor amplifying device is determined by a relationship between a signal frequency and an output signal level, and the first frequency characteristic is a first signal within a predetermined first frequency bandwidth. Set to have a level peak value,
The second frequency characteristic determined by the relationship between the signal frequency and the output signal level in the first amplification unit has a second signal level peak value;
The first external matching circuit performs impedance matching with a second frequency bandwidth narrower than the first frequency bandwidth so that the second signal level peak value is larger than the first signal level peak value. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, a high cost suppressing effect can be obtained.

It is a figure which shows the electricity supply apparatus of the semiconductor element concerning Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a frequency characteristic diagram for demonstrating the effect of the electricity supply apparatus of the semiconductor element concerning Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the electricity supply apparatus of the semiconductor element concerning Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the electricity supply apparatus of the semiconductor element concerning Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a current-carrying device 2 for a semiconductor element according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The energization device 2 includes an oscillator 19, an amplification unit 10 that amplifies the output of the oscillator 19, an RF input connector 14 that is electrically connected to the input side of the amplification unit 10 and connected to the oscillator 19, and an output of the amplification unit 10. An RF output connector 15 electrically connected to the side and a terminating resistor 20 are provided. The entire energizing device 2 is unified with a characteristic impedance (specifically, 50Ω) system.

  The RF output connector 15 is connected to the input side of the energized semiconductor element 60 to be burned in. The termination resistor 20 is connected to the output side of the energized semiconductor element 60 to be connected to the RF output connector 15. The energizing device 2 also includes a jig (not shown) for holding the energized semiconductor element 60.

  The amplification unit 10 includes a high-frequency amplifier 11, external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b, a connector holding plate 16 that holds the RF input connector 14 and the RF output connector 15, and a board 17 on which these are mounted. .

  The high frequency amplifier 11 includes a semiconductor amplifying element 11a and internal matching circuits 11b and 11c. The internal matching circuits 11b and 11c match the impedances on the input side and output side of the semiconductor amplifying element 11a with the characteristic impedance.

  Although omitted in FIG. 1, the energizing device 2 includes a drain power source and a gate power source for operating the semiconductor amplifying element 11a, and DC power is supplied to the semiconductor amplifying element 11a from these power sources.

  The external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b are provided on the input side and the output side of the high-frequency amplifier 11, respectively. The external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b include metal through lines 13a and 13b printed on the surface, and a plurality of matching adjustment stubs 18 provided on the through lines 13a and 13b. The external matching circuits included in the external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b are circuits that perform impedance matching with a narrower frequency bandwidth than the internal matching circuits 11b and 11c, and are called so-called narrow band matching circuits or single frequency matching circuits.

  Although omitted in FIG. 1, a drain power source and a gate power source are also attached to the energized semiconductor element 60.

  The operation of the energization device 2 will be described. First, a weak high frequency power signal having a desired frequency is generated by the oscillator 19. This high frequency signal is amplified by a high frequency amplifier 11. Although FIG. 1 shows a one-stage amplifier configuration, usually, amplifiers are configured in series in several stages as in the second embodiment to be described later so as to obtain a desired high-frequency power.

  The high frequency power generated by the oscillator 19 is input to the RF input connector 14 and then passes through the through line 13a. Thereafter, the high frequency power is input to the semiconductor amplifying element 11a, and power amplification is performed.

  The amplified high frequency power passes through the through line 13b, passes through the RF output connector 15, and is supplied to the semiconductor element 60 to be energized. The high frequency power output from the energized semiconductor element 60 is converted into heat by the terminating resistor 20 in order to prevent leakage of radio waves.

  FIG. 2 is a frequency characteristic diagram for explaining the operational effects of the semiconductor element energization device 2 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating the frequency characteristics of the output signal level of the high-frequency amplifier 11. That is, the input / output impedance of the semiconductor amplifying element 11a is impedance-matched by the internal matching circuits 11b and 11c.

  On the other hand, FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating the frequency characteristics of the output signal level of the amplification unit 10. That is, the input / output impedance of the high-frequency amplifier 11 is impedance-matched by the external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b.

  As can be seen from FIGS. 2A and 2B, the external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b have a peak value of the output signal level of the amplification unit 10 that is higher than a peak value of the output signal level of the high frequency amplifier 11. It is increasing. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2A, the amplification unit 10 is internally matched so that a flat output characteristic of 47 dBm can be obtained at the center frequency of 4.7 GHz and the frequency bandwidth BW1. .

  For example, in the “Mitsubishi Electric High Frequency Device Catalog (created in September 2012)” available from www.MitsubishiElectric.co.jp/semiconductors, the output is 47 dBm in MGFC47A4450. This indicates that 47 dBm can be substantially obtained in the range of 4.4 GHz to 5.0 GHz. In order to obtain an output within this frequency range during the internal matching adjustment, the broadband matching adjustment is performed to some extent. This is because a normal user uses the frequency slightly changed, and therefore it is desirable that the operating frequency range is wide.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2B, the external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b according to the present embodiment have a center frequency of 4.7 GHz and a frequency bandwidth BW2 narrower than the frequency bandwidth BW1. A narrower output characteristic having a peak at 49.5 dBm can be obtained.

  Thus, by matching in a narrow band only at the center frequency of 4.7 GHz, the output signal level of the high-frequency amplifier 11 can be improved to a maximum of 49.5 dBm. Further, when the gain of the catalog value is 9.5 dB, a high gain of 11 dB can be realized by the high frequency amplifier 11. As described above, if the high-frequency amplifier 11 is used as it is, only 47 dBm (50 W) of power can be applied to the energized semiconductor element 60, so that 49.5 dBm (89 W) of power can be applied to the entire energization device 2. Become.

  In general, the high-frequency amplifier 11 having a high output signal level is likely to be more expensive than the high-frequency amplifier 11 having a low output signal level. This is because the higher the output signal level, the higher the cost because the internal semiconductor amplifying element becomes larger. In general, an internal matching semiconductor device is matched to a characteristic impedance (that is, 50Ω) on both the input side and the output side, and a predetermined characteristic can be obtained without adjusting the impedance externally.

  The internal matching type high-frequency amplifier is a general product that is assumed to be used alone as an amplifier, and is inexpensive because it is a mass-produced product. According to the energization device 2 according to the present embodiment, the internal matching type high frequency amplifier 11 can be used after its output signal level is increased as compared with the high frequency amplifier 11 alone.

  The main application of the energizing device 2 is to burn-in the energized semiconductor element 60 at a fixed frequency (4.7 GHz in the present embodiment). This is clearly different from the case where the amplification device for signal amplification in many cases is designed with a wide operating frequency range on the assumption that the user uses the frequency slightly changed.

  Therefore, in the energization device 2, even if narrowband matching is performed so as to increase the output signal level in accordance with the operating frequency (4.7 GHz), the necessary performance can be sufficiently satisfied. As described above, since the energization device 2 having a high output signal level can be realized using an inexpensive high-frequency amplifier, a high cost suppressing effect can be obtained.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a current-carrying device 102 for a semiconductor element according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The energization device 102 includes a four-stage amplification unit in which amplification units 110a and 110b and amplification units 10a and 10b are connected in series. The energization device 102 amplifies the output of -1 dBm from the oscillator 19 in four stages and obtains an output of 47 dBm in the final stage.

  The basic structure of the amplification units 10a and 10b is the same as that of the amplification unit 10 according to the first embodiment. That is, each of the amplification units 10a and 10b is similar to the amplification unit 10 according to the first embodiment, and an internal matching type high-frequency amplifier matched with the characteristic impedance and an external matching circuit that performs impedance matching with a narrow bandwidth. And substrates 12a and 12b.

  However, the internal high-frequency amplifier is different, and the high-frequency amplifier of the amplification unit 10a has an output signal level of 39 dBm as a catalog value. On the other hand, the high frequency amplifier of the amplification unit 10b has an output signal level of 45 dBm as a catalog value. According to the amplification units 10a and 10b, the performance of the built-in high-frequency amplifier can be extracted in the same way as the amplification unit 10 of the first embodiment, the output can be improved by 2 dBm to 3 dBm from the catalog value, and the gain can also be about 2 dB. It can be improved over the catalog value.

Energized device 102, the amplification unit 110a, the 110b, Bei Eteiru prior stages of the amplifier unit 10. The amplifying units 110a and 110b include a high-frequency amplifier having a semiconductor amplifying element (not shown) and an external matching circuit connected to the high-frequency amplifier, although the internal structure is not shown. The high-frequency amplifiers inside the amplification units 110a and 110b are not provided with an internal matching circuit, and are so-called external matching types. This external matching circuit matches the impedance of the semiconductor amplifying element to the characteristic impedance (usually 50Ω) with a frequency bandwidth wider than the frequency bandwidth BW2. The amplification units 110a and 110b are provided in the front stage of the amplification unit 10a.

  According to the present embodiment, the use of the amplification units 10a and 10b has an effect of reducing the number of stages when performing multistage amplification. That is, when the output from the oscillator 19 is −1 dBm, in order to obtain 47 dBm output at the final stage, according to the catalog value of the above-mentioned “Mitsubishi Electric High Frequency Device Catalog (created in September 2012)”, there are 5 stages. A high frequency amplifier is required. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, the output can be improved by 2 dBm to 3 dBm and the gain can be improved by about 2 dB as compared with the catalog value. As shown in FIG. 3, power amplification from −1 dBm to 47 dBm can be realized by four stages of amplification. Further, there is an advantage that the amplifier in the final stage can be changed to an amplification unit 10b which is not a high frequency amplifier of 47 dBm, but which has a built-in low frequency 45 dBm high frequency amplifier and has an output signal level equivalent to this.

  In addition, since the number of amplification units, that is, the number of stages of amplification circuits is reduced, the energization device 2 can be reduced in size, weight, and cost.

  Moreover, the following effects are obtained by performing multi-stage amplification using the amplification units 10a and 10b. According to so-called multistage amplification in which signals are amplified by a plurality of high frequency amplifiers, the output signal level obtained in the final stage can be made larger. If the energization device 102 including the amplification units 10a and 10b according to the present embodiment is used, such a large increase in output signal level can be achieved with an inexpensive high-frequency amplifier having a relatively low output signal level. Therefore, an equivalent output signal level can be realized by the cheaper high-frequency amplifier 11, thereby obtaining a high cost suppressing effect.

  Further, by providing the amplification units 10a and 10b on the rear side as in the energization device 102 according to the second embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. When performing multi-stage amplification, the plurality of high-frequency amplifiers 11 must have a higher output signal level as they are located on the rear stage side (that is, relatively on the output side). The high frequency amplifier 11 having a high output signal level is likely to be more expensive than the high frequency amplifier 11 having a low output signal level.

  Conventionally, an expensive high-frequency amplifier 11 having a high output signal level has to be used for the high-frequency amplifier 11 on the rear stage side, particularly the final stage. However, in the energization device 102 according to the present embodiment, the amplification units 10a and 10b according to the present embodiment are applied to the subsequent amplification unit. Therefore, in the past, an expensive high-output signal level high-frequency amplifier was used, but an equivalent output signal level can be obtained by using a relatively inexpensive high-frequency amplifier having a relatively low output signal level instead. . Therefore, a high cost suppressing effect can be obtained.

  In particular, the energization device 102 is also characterized in that the amplification unit 10b is provided at the final stage. Since the final stage is required to have the highest output, it is generally the most expensive semiconductor amplifying device, but there is a price difference of about twice when comparing a 47 dBm high frequency amplifier and a 45 dBm high frequency amplifier. In the second embodiment, an output signal level of 47 dBm is realized by using a 45 dBm high-frequency amplifier instead of a 47 dBm high-frequency amplifier, so that equivalent performance can be obtained with an inexpensive high-frequency amplifier of about half price.

In the amplification units 10a and 10b, the gain is improved, so that the power conversion efficiency is improved and the power consumption is reduced.
Note that the present invention is not limited to the energization device including the four-stage amplification unit, and may be an energization device using the amplification unit 10 for at least one of the two or more stages of the amplification units.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a current-carrying device 202 for a semiconductor element according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment is the same as the energization device 2 according to the first embodiment except that tuners 112a and 112b are included instead of the external matching circuit boards 12a and 12b. Since the tuner is not fixed matching like a stub, if the impedance matching of the energized semiconductor element 60 is slightly shifted, it can be adjusted freely. Further, it is possible to freely adjust the applied load by intentionally shifting the impedance.

2 Energizing device, 10 amplifying unit, 10a amplifying unit, 10b amplifying unit, 11 high frequency amplifier, 11a semiconductor amplifying element, 11b internal matching circuit, 12a external matching circuit board, 13a through line, 13b through line, 14 input connector, 15 output Connector, 16 Connector holding plate, 17 Substrate, 18 Stub, 19 Oscillator, 20 Termination resistor, 60 Current-carrying semiconductor element, 102 Current-carrying device, 110a Amplifying unit, 112a Tuner, 202 Current-carrying device

Claims (6)

An oscillator,
A first amplification unit for amplifying the output of the oscillator;
A connector electrically connected to the output side of the first amplification unit;
A termination resistor for connection to the output side of the energized semiconductor element to be connected to the connector;
With
The first amplification unit includes:
A semiconductor amplifying device comprising: a first semiconductor amplifying element; and an internal matching circuit that matches the impedance of each of the input side and the output side of the first semiconductor amplifying element to a characteristic impedance;
A first external matching circuit is provided, et al, respectively on the input side and output side of the semiconductor amplifying device,
Only including,
The semiconductor amplification device is constructed according to a predetermined specification,
The specification has a first frequency characteristic in which the semiconductor amplifying device is determined by a relationship between a signal frequency and an output signal level, and the first frequency characteristic is a first signal within a predetermined first frequency bandwidth. Set to have a level peak value,
The second frequency characteristic determined by the relationship between the signal frequency and the output signal level in the first amplification unit has a second signal level peak value;
The first external matching circuit performs impedance matching with a second frequency bandwidth narrower than the first frequency bandwidth so that the second signal level peak value is larger than the first signal level peak value. A semiconductor device energization device. A second amplifying unit for amplifying and outputting an input signal, Bei example prior stage of the first amplifier unit,
Energizing apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first amplifying unit is characterized by the amplification unit der Rukoto the last stage. The second amplifying unit is connected to the second semiconductor amplifying element and the second semiconductor amplifying element, and matches the impedance of the second semiconductor amplifying element to the characteristic impedance with a third frequency bandwidth wider than that of the first external matching circuit. A second external matching circuit,
3. The energization device for a semiconductor element according to claim 2, wherein the second amplification unit is provided in front of the first amplification unit.   The energization apparatus for a semiconductor element according to claim 1, wherein the first amplification units are connected in a plurality of stages.   5. The energization device for a semiconductor element according to claim 1, wherein the first external matching circuit includes a tuner. 6.   6. The device for energizing a semiconductor element according to claim 1, wherein the first external matching circuit includes a matching circuit substrate having a line and a stub provided on the line. .

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