Effect of drain voltage on channel temperature and reliability of pseudomorphic InP-based HEMTs

By performing biased accelerated life tests and three dimensional temperature simulations the effect of drain voltage on reliability and channel temperature of pseudomorphic InAlAs/InGaAs HEMTs for low noise applications was investigated. At V d = 1 V excellent long term stability in nitrogen ambient was observed. Increasing the drain voltage to V d = 2 V at constant channel temperature leads to a faster degradation rate which is caused by field accelerated degradation mechanism, probably involving fluorine diffusion. The influence of gate width on channel temperature and reliability was found to be small.