Gate-drain breakdown effects upon the large signal performance of GaAs MESFETs

Author

Winslow, T.A. ; Fan, D. ; Trew, R.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

8-10 May 1990

Firstpage

315

Abstract

GaAs MESFETs often demonstrate a negative breakdown slope characteristic. This slope can be critical in determining the RF performance of MESFET amplifiers. It is demonstrated that as the breakdown slope decreases, RF power performance is degraded. Tuning is also important because this adjusts the load line to allow maximum voltage and current swings on the drain. Reverse breakdown followed by forward gate conduction are confirmed to be the main saturation mechanisms for GaAs MESFETs.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky gate field effect transistors; gallium arsenide; power transistors; radiofrequency amplifiers; semiconductor device models; GaAs; GaAs MESFETs; MESFET amplifiers; RF performance; RF power performance; forward gate conduction; gate drain breakdown effects; large signal performance; negative breakdown slope characteristic; reverse breakdown; saturation mechanisms; semiconductors; Costs; Electric breakdown; Equations; Fabrication; Gallium arsenide; MESFETs; Microwave circuits; Microwave devices; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1990., IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Dallas, TX

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1990.99583

Filename

99583