Passivated 0,15 mu m InAlAs/InGaAs HEMTs with 500 GHz f(max). HF performance, thermal stability and reliability

We report on fabrication, performance and reliability of 0. 15 mu m gate-length passivated InAlAs/InGaAs HEMTs with pseudomorphic channels. A 60 mu m gate width device had an ft of 160 GHz, and the extrapolated f (max) of 500 GHz is the highest reported to date for any passivated transistor. This performance is mainly due to the low gate-drain feed-back capacitance of 45 fF/mm, giving a C(gs)/C(gd) ratio of 35, and to the high intrinsic transconductance of 1,7 S/mm. The robustness of our lnP-based HEMT technology will be demonstrated by high temperature stress under N2 and forming gas with 10 % H2 in N2 . Furthermore, DC accelerated life tests were made on our devices at different temperatures, these lead to an Arrhenius plot with an activation energy of 1.8 eV and an extrapolated mean time to failure of 6x.10(exp6) hours at 125 deg C ambient temperature.