Impact of high energy particles on InGaP/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs

Irradiation damage and its recovery behavior resulting from thermal anneali ng in InGaP/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs, subjected to a 20-MeV alpha ray and 220-MeV carbon, are studied for the first time. The drain current and effe ctive mobility decrease after irradiation, while the threshold voltage incr eases in positive direction. The degradation of device performance increase s with increasing fluence. The decrease of the mobility is thought to be du e to the scattering of channel electrons with the induced lattice defects a nd also to the decrease of the electron density in the two dimensional elec tron gas (2DEG) region. The influence of the radiation source on the degrad ation and recovery is discussed by comparison with 1-MeV electron and 1-MeV fast neutron exposures with respect to the number of knock-on atoms and th e nonionizing energy loss (NIEL). Isochronal thermal annealing for temperat ures ranging from 75 to 300 degrees C shows that the device performance deg raded by the irradiation recovers completely.