SEE Test Guidelines and Characterisation of GaAs Power Devices

Traditionally, GaAs devices were assumed to be relatively insensitive to the space radiation environment. This is indeed correct for TID effects. However, concerning single events effects, it has been shown that some GaAs power devices can be sensitive and may display destructive events depending on the technology used and the operating biasing conditions [RD-5], [RD-2]. The paper aims at obtaining a better understanding of the relationship between failure in GaAs devices under heavy ion irradiation testing and the application conditions (DC+RF). An important part will be the identification of the critical parameters and the correlation between DC and DC+RF test conditions.