F. Schuermeyer et al., GATE CURRENTS IN HETEROSTRUCTURE FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS - CONTRIBUTION BY WARM ELECTRONS, Materials science & engineering. B, Solid-state materials for advanced technology, 28(1-3), 1994, pp. 264-267
The two-dimensional electron gas in a heterostructure field-effect tra
nsistor is heated by the drain potential. The elevated electron temper
ature in turn causes an increased gate current. The highest electron t
emperature is reached at the drain. However, the gate-to-channel barri
er is the highest at the drain, which decreases the electron transfer
over the barrier. In this paper we investigate the dependence of the g
ate current on lattice temperature and drain bias, and show that at hi
gh drain and gate biases the largest contribution to the gate current
comes from the region where the electron temperature, leading to the e
lectron emission from the channel to the gate, is less than 100 degree
s C larger than the lattice temperature.