Title :
Off-state breakdown in power pHEMTs: the impact of the source
Author :
Somerville, M.H. ; del Alamo, J.A. ; Saunier, P.
Author_Institution :
MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Conventional wisdom suggests that in pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (pHEMTs), the field between the drain and the gate determines off-state breakdown, and that the drain to gate voltage therefore sets the breakdown voltage of the device. Thus, the two terminal breakdown voltage is a widely used figure of merit, and most models for breakdown focus on the depletion region in the gate-drain gap, while altogether ignoring the source. We present new measurements and simulations that demonstrate that for power pHEMTs, the electrostatic interaction of the source seriously degrades the device´s gate-drain breakdown, and must be taken into consideration in device design. As a vehicle for this study we have used a state-of-the-art L/sub G/=0.25 /spl mu/m double heterostructure pHEMT with excellent power performance (P/sub 0/= 1W, Gain= 11 dB, and PAE=60% at 10 GHz for W/sub G/=1200 /spl mu/m) and high breakdown voltage (BV/sub DG/=21 V at I/sub D/=1 mA/mm).
Keywords :
electric breakdown; microwave field effect transistors; microwave power transistors; power field effect transistors; semiconductor device models; 0.25 micron; 1 W; 10 GHz; 11 dB; 21 V; 2D simulations; 60 percent; breakdown voltage; depletion region; double heterostructure pHEMT; gate-drain breakdown degradation; gate-drain gap; high electron mobility transistors; offstate breakdown; power pHEMTs; pseudomorphic HEMT; source electrostatic interaction; Breakdown voltage; Degradation; Electric breakdown; Electron mobility; Electrostatic measurements; HEMTs; MODFETs; PHEMTs; Power measurement; Vehicles;
Conference_Titel :
Device Research Conference, 1996. Digest. 54th Annual
Conference_Location :
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3358-6
DOI :
10.1109/DRC.1996.546412
