The Effect of Gate Current on the Degradation of GaAs PHEMT MMICs

Author

Chou, Y.C. ; Luo, B.-W. ; Leung, D. ; Kan, Q. ; Biedenbender, M. ; Bhorania, R. ; Lai, R. ; Eng, D. ; Farkas, D. ; Chin, P. ; Wojtowicz, M. ; Block, T. ; Oki, A.

Author_Institution

Northrop Grumman Corp., Redondo Beach, CA

fYear

2006

fDate

12-12 Nov. 2006

Firstpage

111

Lastpage

114

Abstract

Scanning transmission electron micrographs were used to investigate the gate metal sinking effect in 0.15 mum GaAs PHEMT MMICs subjected to elevated temperature lifetesting. Gate metal sinking causes a decrease of the Schottky barrier height, therefore reducing the Schottky diode´s forward turn-on voltage. The progressive gate metal sinking eventually leads to a drastic increase in the three-terminal forward gate current. Accordingly, a distinct degradation phenomenon in MMICs due to high forward gate current and gate resistors was observed. The degradation causes a decrease in transconductance and small signal gain, following the earlier gate sinking. In conclusion, a dependence of DC performance and small signal gain on the forward gate current was observed in GaAs PHEMT MMICs

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; MMIC; Schottky barriers; gallium arsenide; scanning electron microscopy; wide band gap semiconductors; 0.15 micron; GaAs; PHEMT MMIC degradation; Schottky barrier height; elevated temperature lifetesting; forward turn-on voltage reduction; gate current effect; gate metal sinking; scanning transmission electron micrographs; small signal gain; three-terminal forward gate current; transconductance decrease; Degradation; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Lead; MMICs; PHEMTs; Schottky barriers; Schottky diodes; Temperature; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

ROCS Workshop, 2006. [Reliability of Compound Semiconductors]

Conference_Location

San Antonio, TX

Print_ISBN

0-7908-0113-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROCS.2006.323408

Filename

4118086