Reliability aspects of commercial AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs

Author

Canali, C. ; Magistrali, F. ; Sangalli, M. ; Tedesco, C. ; Zanoni, E. ; Castellaneta, G. ; Marchetti, F.

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Elettronica ed Inf., Padova Univ., Italy

fYear

1991

fDate

9-11 April 1991

Firstpage

206

Lastpage

213

Abstract

The reliability of commercially available AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs four different suppliers has been investigated by means of high temperature storage tests and biased life test. The main reliability problems have been detected in Schottky gate and ohmic contacts due to thermally activated metal-metal and metal-semiconductor interactions. In particular, Al/Ti gate contacts show a decrease of barrier height with the activation energy E/sub a/=1.3 eV, while Al/Ni Schottky contact shows an increase of barrier height with E/sub a/=1.8 eV. An increase of source and drain parasitic resistances has been detected in devices of two suppliers with E/sub a/=1.6 eV. Comparison with tests on low-noise MESFETs does not show major reliability problems for heterostructure devices.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; high electron mobility transistors; life testing; reliability; semiconductor device testing; Al-Ni gate contacts; Al-Ti gate contacts; AlGaAs-GaAs; HEMTs; Schottky gate; biased life test; commercially available; drain parasitic resistances; failure modes; high temperature storage tests; metal-metal interactions; metal-semiconductor interactions; ohmic contacts; reliability; source parasitic-resistance; thermally activated interactions; Current measurement; Electrical resistance measurement; Frequency; Gallium arsenide; HEMTs; Life estimation; Life testing; MODFETs; Performance analysis; Silicon compounds;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium, 1991, 29th Annual Proceedings., International

Conference_Location

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Print_ISBN

0-87942-680-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RELPHY.1991.146016

Filename

146016