Location of defective cells in HBT power amplifier arrays using IR emission microscopy

Author

Dai, Peter ; Canfield, Philip

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

181

Lastpage

204

Abstract

A logical method and approach to a very low percentage failure rate problem for HBT PA products is presented. The value of the IR emission technique coupled with junction breakdown measurements demonstrated the capability to identify a potentially bad HBT cell contained in an array of a few hundred HBT cells. HBT cells with low junction breakdown characteristics are demonstrated to be a potential killer to the whole PA. The cause of low breakdown can be either process or epi-layer defects, as well as by ESD or reverse voltage under certain conditions

Keywords

bipolar transistor circuits; electrostatic discharge; failure analysis; heterojunction bipolar transistors; infrared imaging; power amplifiers; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor epitaxial layers; ESD; HBT power amplifier array; IR emission microscopy; defective cell location; epilayer defect; failure rate; junction breakdown; process defect; reverse voltage; Electrostatic discharge; Gallium arsenide; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Manufacturing; Microscopy; Power amplifiers; Power system reliability; Production; Temperature distribution; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

GaAs Reliability Workshop, 2000. Proceedings

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Print_ISBN

0-7908-0102-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GAASRW.2000.902429

Filename

902429