Abstract

This paper proposes a novel technique for extracting FET thermal resistances. The technique is very simple since it requires only data from conventional DC measurements of the gate current, which makes it suitable for widespread application. It is essentially based on the gate-diode's high sensitivity to channel temperature increase engendered by device self-heating. After deriving and explaining the technique's procedural steps, its results for an 0.5um-gate MESFET are critically discussed.