Survivability of InP HEMT devices and MMICs under high RF input drive

Author

Chen, Y.C. ; Barsky, M. ; Tsai, R. ; Lai, R. ; Yen, H.C. ; Oki, A. ; Streit, D.C.

Author_Institution

Div. of Electron. & Technol., TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA, USA

Volume

3

fYear

2000

fDate

11-16 June 2000

Firstpage

1917

Abstract

We have investigated the survivability of our 0.1- and 0.15-/spl mu/m InP HEMT devices and MMIC amplifiers under high input RF drive levels. Input destruction powers as high as 22 and 26 dBm were observed for the 0.1- and 0.15-/spl mu/m MMIC amplifiers, respectively. These results shows that InP HEMT is suitable for many applications even where high survivability levels are required. Analytical analysis and harmonic balanced nonlinear simulations suggest that device destruction be due to large drain-gate voltage swing that exceeds the breakdown voltage under high RF drives. The survivability of an MMIC amplifier depends on its impedance matching and can be improved by using large devices.

Keywords

Circuit simulation; Field effect MMIC; HEMT integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; Impedance matching; Indium compounds; Integrated circuit reliability; MMIC amplifiers; Semiconductor device breakdown; 0.1 micron; 0.15 micron; HEMT devices; InP; MMIC amplifiers; RF input drive; breakdown voltage; device destruction; drain-gate voltage swing; harmonic balanced nonlinear simulations; impedance matching; input destruction powers; survivability; Analytical models; Breakdown voltage; HEMTs; Harmonic analysis; High power amplifiers; Impedance matching; Indium phosphide; MMICs; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest. 2000 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5687-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2000.862357

Filename

862357