Accelerated aging and long-term reliability study of ion-implanted GaAs MMIC IF amplifier

Author

Esfandiari, R. ; O´Neill, T.J. ; Lin, T.S. ; Kono, R.K.

Author_Institution

TRW, Redondo Beach, CA, USA

Volume

37

Issue

4

fYear

1990

fDate

4/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1174

Lastpage

1177

Abstract

The results of reliability testing of ion-implanted GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) IF amplifiers (IFA) fabricated on 3-in chromium-doped GaAs LEC substrates are presented. Three accelerated aging tests and one long-term life test performed on more than 200 IFAs and totaling 13000 h have been completed. The predicted failure rate is less than 150 FITs for an operating temperature of 125°C. The mean time to failure (MTTF) is 10⁷ h with an activation energy of 1.9 eV. The principle failure modes are degradation of IFA bias current and RF gain. Preliminary failure analysis indicates that degradation results from an increase in FET channel resistance and reduced transconductance

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC; circuit reliability; failure analysis; field effect integrated circuits; gallium arsenide; integrated circuit testing; ion implantation; life testing; microwave amplifiers; 125 degC; FET channel resistance; GaAs; GaAs:Cr substrates; LEC substrates; MMIC IF amplifier; MTTF; RF gain degradation; accelerated aging tests; bias current degradation; depletion mode MESFET technology; failure analysis; failure modes; failure rate; ion implanted semiconductor; long-term life test; long-term reliability; monolithic microwave integrated circuit; reliability testing; transconductance reduction; Accelerated aging; Circuit testing; Degradation; Gallium arsenide; Integrated circuit reliability; Integrated circuit testing; Life testing; MMICs; Microwave integrated circuits; Monolithic integrated circuits;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.52461

Filename

52461