Effects of a buried p-layer on alpha-particle immunity of MESFET's fabricated on semi-insulating GaAs substrates

Measurements of alpha-particle-induced charge are carried out for the first time on both conventional MESFET's fabricated directly on semi-insulating GaAs substrates and MESFET's with a buried p-layer. The maximum collected charge is found to be 65 fC in the MESFET's with a buried p-layer, one order smaller than in conventional MESFET's.