Damage effect and mechanism of the GaAs high electron mobility transistor induced by high power microwave

• Published in: Chinese physics B Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 461 - 466
• Main Author: 刘阳 柴常春 杨银堂 孙静 李志鹏
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.04.2016
• Subjects: AlGaAs; Breakdown; Computer simulation; Cylinders; Damage; Gallium arsenide; Microwaves; PHEMT; Scanning electron microscopy; Semiconductor devices; 低噪声放大器; 微波诱导; 损伤效应; 砷化镓; 高功率微波; 高电子迁移率晶体管
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834; 1741-4199
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/25/4/048504

In this paper, we present the damage effect and mechanism of high power microwave （HPM） on AIGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor （pHEMT） of low-noise amplifier （LNA）. A detailed investigation is carried out by simulation and experiment study. A two-dimensional electro-thermal model of the typical GaAs pHEMT induced by HPM is established in this paper. The simulation result reveals that avalanche breakdown, intrinsic excitation, and thermal breakdown all contribute to damage process. Heat accumulation occurs during the positive half cycle and the cylinder under the gate near the source side is most susceptible to burn-out. Experiment is carried out by injecting high power microwave into GaAs pHEMT LNA samples. It is found that the damage to LNA is because of the burn-out at first stage pHEMT. The interiors of the damaged samples are observed by scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and energy dispersive spectrometer （EDS）. Experimental results accord well with the simulation of our model.