Reliability aspects of commercial AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs

The reliability of commercially available AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs four different suppliers has been investigated by means of high temperature storage tests and biased life test. The main reliability problems have been detected in Schottky gate and ohmic contacts due to thermally activated metal-metal and metal-semiconductor interactions. In particular, Al/Ti gate contacts show a decrease of barrier height with the activation energy E/sub a/=1.3 eV, while Al/Ni Schottky contact shows an increase of barrier height with E/sub a/=1.8 eV. An increase of source and drain parasitic resistances has been detected in devices of two suppliers with E/sub a/=1.6 eV. Comparison with tests on low-noise MESFETs does not show major reliability problems for heterostructure devices.<<ETX>>

[1]  L. G. Hipwood,et al.  Observation and mechanism of kink effect in depletion-mode AlGaAs/GaAs and AlGaAs/GaInAs HEMTs , 1989 .

[2]  A. Christou,et al.  Reliability of High Speed HEMT Integrated Circuits and Multi-2DEG Structures , 1990 .

[3]  Satoru Ishida,et al.  Fabrication technology of stable Schottky barrier gates for gallium arsenide MESFETS , 1981 .

[4]  W. Ted Masselink,et al.  AlGaAs as a Dielectric on GaAs for Digital I.C.’s: Problems and Solutions , 1990 .

[5]  L. G. Hipwood,et al.  The long‐term stability of n‐AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs , 1991 .

[6]  Enrico Zanoni,et al.  Kink Effect, Transconductance Increase and Field Enhanced Electron-emission In Algaas/gaas Hemts , 1990 .

[7]  Aristos Christou,et al.  Redistribution of aluminum in MODFET ohmic contacts , 1986 .

[8]  A. Christou,et al.  Status of Compound Semiconductor Device Reliability , 1990 .

[9]  J. R. Waldrop,et al.  Electrical properties of ideal metal contacts to GaAs: Schottky‐barrier height , 1984 .

[10]  Yoshinori Wada,et al.  Schottky barrier height variation with metallurgical reactions in aluminum-titanium-gallium arsenide contacts , 1983 .

[11]  Y. Amano,et al.  Enhanced reliability of HEMT by using a TiN barrier , 1990, 28th Annual Proceedings on Reliability Physics Symposium.

[12]  Enrico Zanoni,et al.  Electron detrapping enhanced by electric field in AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs , 1990 .

[13]  G. Landgren,et al.  Al–GaAs (001) Schottky barrier formation , 1983 .

[14]  Kwyro Lee,et al.  A new technique for characterization of the "End" resistance in modulation-doped FET's , 1984, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[15]  Saied N. Tehrani,et al.  Ohmic contact penetration and encroachment in GaAs/AlGaAs and GaAs FETs , 1989 .

[16]  C. Canali,et al.  Test fixture for MESFET reliability life tests , 1987 .

[17]  Aristos Christou.  Reliability problems in state‐of‐the‐art GaAs devices and circuits , 1989 .

[18]  A. Christou,et al.  Reliability of discrete MODFETs: life testing, radiation effects, and ESD , 1988 .