Advanced Function-and Failure Analysis of Monolithic Integrated Travelling Wave Amplifiers by Scanning-Force-Microscopy

For the first time a scanning force microscope (SFM) test system is used for high resolution measurements of voltage distributions within a MMIC based on GaAs substrate. An advanced function- and failure analysis is made by comparison of on-gate voltage distributions and topographhy completed by point measurements of device internal signals up to 10 GHz. The results allow studies of device internal voltage distributions in correlation to topography with submicron resolution and gigahertz bandwidth.