High-field phenomena and reliability issues in microwave heterojunction FETs

Author

Menozzi, Roberto

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Ingegneria dell´´Inf., Parma Univ., Italy

fYear

1999

fDate

6/21/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

75

Lastpage

80

Abstract

This work overviews different issues connected with high electric field conditions in power microwave AlGaAs-GaAs heterojunction FETs (HFETs). These conditions and possible attendant degradation mechanisms, are likely to take place when devices are operated at high drain voltage for power amplification. Typical degradation modes described in this paper include drain current and transconductance reduction (and power slump). A physical interpretation of the experimental results is given with the support of numerical device simulations. The non-trivial relationship between the drain-gate HFET breakdown voltage and the device reliability is also discussed in some detail

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; high field effects; hot carriers; microwave field effect transistors; microwave power transistors; power field effect transistors; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device reliability; AlGaAs-GaAs; AlGaAs/GaAs HFET; degradation mechanisms; device reliability; drain current reduction; drain-gate HFET breakdown voltage; high drain voltage; high electric field conditions; high-field phenomena; hot electron degradation; microwave heterojunction FETs; numerical device simulations; power amplification; power microwave HFETs; power slump; transconductance reduction; Costs; Degradation; Doping; Heterojunctions; Impact ionization; Microwave FETs; Microwave devices; Power amplifiers; Production; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

High Performance Electron Devices for Microwave and Optoelectronic Applications, 1999. EDMO. 1999 Symposium on

Conference_Location

London

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5298-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EDMO.1999.821463

Filename

821463