High reliability GaAs MESFET for suppressed hot-electron-induced degradation of high efficiency power amplifiers

Author

Tkachenko, Y.A. ; Wei, C.J. ; Bartle, D.

Author_Institution

Alpha Ind. Inc., Woburn, MA, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

35715

Firstpage

104

Lastpage

107

Abstract

As a result of channel recess engineering, GaAs MESFET breakdown voltage was improved with minimal sacrifice of device RF performance. The dc breakdown voltages defined at gate current of 1 mA/mm as high as 21.5 V were achieved for the MESFETs with increased channel recess width. A consistent increase in breakdown voltage was observed at RF by using the waveform probing technique. The new MESFET offers suppression of hot-electron effects for improved reliability of high-efficiency power amplifiers with an estimated order of magnitude increase in device lifetime

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; electric breakdown; gallium arsenide; hot carriers; power MESFET; power amplifiers; radiofrequency amplifiers; semiconductor device reliability; 21.5 V; DC breakdown voltage; GaAs; GaAs MESFET; RF device lifetime; channel recess engineering; high efficiency power amplifier; hot-electron-induced degradation; reliability; waveform probing; Breakdown voltage; Degradation; Gallium arsenide; Gold; High power amplifiers; MESFETs; Operational amplifiers; Optical amplifiers; Power system reliability; Radiofrequency amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

GaAs Reliability Workshop, 1997., Proceedings

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7908-0064-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GAASRW.1997.656143

Filename

656143