Reference the two definitions given below, one from IEEE and the
other from US Army research document. Web links are found after
each....
The use of cold FET measurements solves the problem
of junction heating and ANA protection. By 'cold', it is
meant that either Vgs = 0 or Vds = 0, and so a zero DC
drain current flows. Under these conditions, destructive
oscillations are prevented. Also, with the heat dissipation
equal to zero, the entire device merely has to be maintained
at the required measurement temperature. A disadvantage
of cold FET measurements is that the device is
measured under voltage and current conditions far
removed from those under which it will operate. Information
about the device is therefore lost. For example, some
nonlinear elements within a MOSFET show a current
dependence, which cannot be determined from cold
measurements.
The design of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) is
dependent on the ability to generate accurate device
models. Prior knowledge of the external parasitic components is
required to determine the small-signal model of the intrinsic
device. In this report, we describe a technique and its
implementation for extracting external device parasitics. The term
cold
field-effect transistor (FET) refers to measurements taken when
the drain is at the same voltage as the source.