Hot-electron Induced effects, light emission, breakdown and reliability problems phenomena in GaAs MESFET's AlGaAs/GaAs HEMT's and AlGaAs/InGaAS pseudomorphic HEMT's

This paper describes experimental results which demonstrate the existence of reliability problems due to hot-carriers in GaAs MESFET's, AlGaAs/GaAs HEMT's and AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMT's. Both permanent and recoverable changes of ${\rm \:I_d,\ g_m\ and\ V_p}$ have been observed, due to different mechanisms such as: (a) trap creation and electron trapping in the drain access region, possibly at the passivation/surface interface; (b) trap creation and electron trapping under the gate, possibly at the donor/channel interface; (c) thermally-activated or recombination-induced detrapping of electrons from deep levels.