Reliability of radio frequency/microwave power packages: the effects of component materials and assembly processes

Mechanism of radiation effects in semiconductor (GaAs) is described. Analytic and numerical (equivalent circuit and quasi-hydrodynamic methods) models of ionizing irradiation influence on semiconductor devices are discussed. The GaAs microwave MESFET was selected as the investigation object. The combination of the quasihydrodynamic and equivalent circuits methods should provide a possibility to take into account all essential effects and at the same time to save the computation time in comparison with Monte Carlo method. © 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.