µm GaAs PSEUDOMORPHIC HEMT MMIC AMPLIFIERS

High reliability performance of a Ka-band lownoise MMIC amplifier fabricated using 0.15 µm production AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs HEMT process technology is reported. Operating at an accelerated DC bias condition of Vds=5.2V and Ids=250mA/mm, two-stage balanced amplifiers were lifetested at three-temperatures (T ambient=235 o C, Tambient=250 o C, and Tambient=265 o C) in air ambient. Failure time for each temperature was determined using ∆S21=−1.0 dB measured at room temperature as the failure criteria. The activation energy (Ea) is 1.6 eV, achieving a projected median-time-to-failure (MTF) of 7x10 9 hours at a 125 o C junction temperature. This is the first report of 0.15 µm HEMT reliability based on S21 failure criteria of MMIC amplifiers under DC stress at high junction temperature in air ambient. This result demonstrates a robust HEMT technology immune to the stress effects of high electric field under high temperature operation suitable for non-hermetic commercial Kaband applications.