On the effects of hot electrons on the DC and RF characteristics of lattice-matched InAlAs/InGaAs/InP HEMTs

The authors for the first time present results of hot electron stressing of InAlAs/InGaAs/InP high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). High drain bias, room temperature stress cycles have been applied to 0.3 μm, SiN-passivated, lattice-matched devices, and the changes of the DC and RF (up to 50 GHz) characteristics have been studied. Both the DC and RF device gain degrade after stressing; the effect of the stress on the unity current gain cutoff frequency f
_T
is studied under different bias conditions. Results indicate that surface degradation may be responsible for the observed changes.