Characterization of high-speed (above 500 MHz) devices using advanced ATE-techniques, results and device problems

The author describes the work performed to evaluate a number of high-speed (>500 MHz) gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon (Si) semiconductor device types from manufacturers in Japan and the United States. Devices were characterized at data rates of 100 Mb/s to 1.2 Gb/s. Data are presented on propagation delay shifts with duty cycle, shifts in output levels, and and fall times. Several differences in performance between the GaAs and the Si device types are pointed out. The behavior of the propagation delay shift with duty cycle in the GaAs devices are shown to be consistent with the GaAs MESFET hysteresis phenomenon. It is shown that it is relatively easy to make the necessary measurements on advanced ATE (automatic test equipment) which has the capability of supplying data with fast edge rates and which has a wide-bandwidth DUT (device under test) environment. The implications of the performance characteristics of the devices are discussed with respect to various applications