The current density distribution of the GaAs power MESFET: a theory for device burnout

Author

Chang, Chan-sern ; Day, Ding-yuan S.

Author_Institution

Avantek Inc., Santa Clara, CA, USA

Volume

37

Issue

4

fYear

1990

fDate

4/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1162

Lastpage

1163

Abstract

The burnout of a GaAs power MESFET is initiated at the edge of the drain ohmic contact due to the high local current density. A two-dimensional Poisson equation is solved to obtain the current density distribution under the drain. The maximum current density is found to be proportional to the drain current and inversely proportional to the thickness of the active layer under the drain. The burnout voltage can therefore be improved by adding a gate recess to allow a thicker active layer under the drain

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky gate field effect transistors; current density; current distribution; gallium arsenide; power transistors; reliability; semiconductor device models; GaAs; active layer thickness; burnout voltage improvement; current density distribution; device burnout; drain current; drain ohmic contact; gate recess; power MESFET; two-dimensional Poisson equation; Boundary conditions; Buffer layers; Current density; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Laplace equations; MESFETs; Ohmic contacts; Poisson equations; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.52455

Filename

52455