Noise characteristics of InGaP-gated PHEMTs under high current and thermal accelerated stresses

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 52; no. 8; pp. 1706 - 1712
• Main Authors: HUANG, Hou-Kuei, WANG, Chou-Sheng, CHANG, Chieh-Ping, WANG, Yeong-Her, WU, Chang-Luen, CHANG, Chian-Sern
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.08.2005; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Devices; Diodes; Direct current; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Gallium arsenide; Gallium compounds; Gates; Impact ionization; Indium compounds; InGaP; Life estimation; Low noise; Microelectronic fabrication (materials and surfaces technology); MODFETs; Noise; pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs); reliability; Semiconductor device noise; Semiconductor device reliability; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Stresses; Thermal stresses; Transistors; Thermal stress; High strength current; Noise figure; Voltage current curve; Low noise circuit; Power gain; InGaP; Impact phenomena; pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs); MOCVD; High electron mobility transistor; Microelectronic fabrication; Direct current; noise; Capacitance; Pseudomorphic transistor; Schottky barrier diode; Reliability; Transconductance; Thermal variation; Electrical characteristic; Damaging
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2005.852176

The degradation mechanisms of the noise characteristics of InGaP-gated low-noise pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs) under accelerated stresses through dc and thermal stresses are investigated. The devices used were metal-organic chemical vapor deposition-grown In/sub 0.49/Ga/sub 0.51/P/In/sub 0.15/Ga/sub 0.85/As/GaAs low noise PHEMT structures with the gate dimensions of 0.25/spl times/160 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The key noise/effect parameters of devices including 1) related to the deep-trap behavior in device, 2) source/gate resistances, and 3) gate to source capacitance and intrinsic transconductance are discussed. Based on the dc characteristics under dc and thermal stresses, the variations of the current-voltage curve, the diode characteristics (Schottky gate) with related trapping/detrapping phenomena induced by impact ionization and the variation of the depletion in gate-drain region are also investigated. The high reliability of InGaP low noise PHEMTs is demonstrated by the extremely small variations of the minimum noise figure and the associated power gain at 12 GHz after dc and thermal stresses.