GaAs Medium Scale Integrated Circuit Reliability

GaAs Medium Scale Integrated Circuits, made with different processes and metallizations from the usual discrete FETs, require a higher degree of reliability per active element than discrete FETs. As test vehicles, 0.8 GHz ring oscillators were temperature stressed on both operational life test with internally generated RF levels, and on storage life test. Analysis of the negligible degradation of the circuit performance demonstrated that the IC processes are satisfactory. A single IC chip has reliability very comparable to that of a discrete FET. The specially designed fixturing hardware for high temperature stressing with bias is described along with its advantages including low thermal resistance and the low temperature of the biasing components.