The physical mechanisms governing DC breakdown in GaAs MESFETs

Author

Ashworth, J.M.

Author_Institution

Siemens AG, Munich, Germany

fYear

1991

fDate

8-11 Dec. 1991

Firstpage

135

Lastpage

137

Abstract

The combined processes of tunneling and impact ionization are identified as the physical mechanisms governing breakdown in GaAs MESFETs under pinch-off bias conditions. It is proposed that electrons tunnel through the Schottky barrier and then are accelerated towards the drain contact causing impact ionization in the high field region about the drain-sided gate edge. A new, simple model to describe the quantum-mechanical tunneling of the Schottky barrier is presented. This model has been incorporated into the fully self-consistent, two-dimensional device simulator MINIMOS. First results show excellent qualitative agreement with experimental data.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky effect; Schottky gate field effect transistors; electric breakdown of solids; gallium arsenide; impact ionisation; semiconductor device models; tunnelling; DC breakdown; GaAs; MESFETs; MINIMOS; Schottky barrier; drain-sided gate edge; experimental data; high field region; impact ionization; physical mechanisms; pinch-off bias conditions; quantum-mechanical tunneling; semiconductors; tunneling; two-dimensional device simulator; Electric breakdown; Electrons; FETs; Gallium arsenide; Impact ionization; MESFETs; Quantum mechanics; Schottky barriers; Tunneling; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1991. IEDM '91. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0243-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1991.235482

Filename

235482