Ka-band InP high electron mobility transistor monolithic microwave integrated circuit reliability

Abstract

The reliability of AlInAs/GaInAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic microwave integrated circuits on InP substrates from HRL Labs has been studied with elevated-temperature lifetests on Ka-band LNAs, as well as ramped-voltage tests on individual capacitors. In the lifetests the LNAs were put under normal DC bias, and aging was accelerated by heating to channel temperatures of 190°C and 210°C. Room-temperature characterizations involved DC tests of HEMT parameters as well as 30 GHz measurements of gain, noise figure and phase. Aging caused the noise figure to drop by a few tenths of a dB, and the phase changed by ±10°. The gain dropped gradually by several dB. Taking 1 dB drop in gain as the failure criterion, we find an activation energy of 1.1 eV, and a mean time to failure (MTTF) at an operating channel temperature of 70°C of 7×10 6 h. In the ramped-voltage tests, 10×10 μm 2 capacitors were taken to breakdown at two different temperatures, and several ramp rates. This yielded a voltage acceleration factor of γ=36–39 nm/V, and thermal activation energy of 0.11–0.13 eV. Next, ramped voltage tests were conducted on 200×200 μm 2 capacitors, typical of those in circuits. These were done at 25°C and 3.0 V/s only, and at least 1000 specimens were tested per wafer. The known acceleration factors were used to find the MTTFs at 70°C, with operating biases of 5 or 10 V. For the majority of the population the MTTFs are about 10 9 h, while only 0.07% of the population has MTTF less than 1×10 6 h. The combination of results from elevated-temperature lifetests and ramped-voltage capacitor tests indicates excellent reliability for this MMIC technology in terms of known “wearout” failure mechanisms.