Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Breakdown walkout in pseudomorphic HEMT's

1996; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Volume: 43; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1109/16.485535

1557-9646

R. Menozzi, P. Cova, C. Canali, F. Fantini,

Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design

In this work we show for the first time evidence of gate-drain breakdown walkout due to hot electrons in pseudomorphic AlGaAs-InGaAs-GaAs HEMTs (PHEMTs). Experiments performed on passivated commercial PHEMTs show that hot electron stress cycles induce a large and permanent increase of the gate-drain breakdown voltage. Three-terminal and two-terminal stress conditions are compared, the former producing a much larger walkout due to hot electrons flowing in the channel. Experimental results indicate that a build-up of negative charge in the region between gate and drain is responsible for the breakdown walkout, due to a local widening of the depletion region and a reduction of the peak electric field.