THE EFFECT OF HOT-ELECTRON STRESS ON THE DC AND MICROWAVE CHARACTERISTICS OF ALGAAS INGAAS/GAAS PHEMTS/

This work reports on hot, electron reliability of 0.25 mu m Al-0.25-Ga 0.75As/In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs PHEMTs from the viewpoint of both DC and RF c haracteristics. The changes of DC and RF behavior after high drain bia s stressing are shown to be strongly correlated. Both can be attribute d to a decrease of the threshold voltage, yielding different effects o n gain depending on the bias point and circuitry chosen for device ope ration: a fixed current bias scheme is shown to minimize the changes i nduced by the stress. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd