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With the development of microelectronic technology, the reliability of devices in a complex electromagnetic environment has become one of the greatest challenges in the semiconductor industry. On this basis, a phenomenon of nonlinear transient response is observed in high-power microwave (HPM)-radiating AlGaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistors (pHEMTs). This abnormal response is induced before the thermal failure, causing disturbances to the circuit. To understand this phenomenon, a detailed mechanism analysis is proposed. The analysis shows that the nonlinear response is initially associated with the 2DEG velocity saturation, then a breakdown process is induced by the tunneling and impact ionization combined effect. Within each radiation period, the channel current changes its direction twice under the influence of the HPM field. The nonlinear response current Id is derived from the theoretical analysis. TCAD simulations demonstrate the saturation and breakdown process. Corresponding experiments are performed using a Ka-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) chip. The results support the theory well.

A two-dimensional model of the silicon NPN monolithic composite transistor is established for the first time by utilizing the semiconductor device simulator, Sentaurus-TCAD. By analyzing the internal distributions of electric field, current density, and temperature of the device, a detailed investigation on the damage process and mechanism induced by high-power microwaves (HPM) is performed. The results indicate that the temperature elevation occurs in the negative half-period and the temperature drop process is in the positive half-period under the HPM injection from the output port. The damage point is located near the edge of the base–emitter junction of T2, while with the input injection it exists between the base and the emitter of T2. Comparing these two kinds of injection, the input injection is more likely to damage the device than the output injection. The dependences of the damage energy threshold and the damage power threshold causing the device failure on the pulse-width are obtained, and the formulas obtained have the same form as the experimental equations, which demonstrates that more power is required to destroy the device if the pulse-width is shorter. Furthermore, the simulation result in this paper has a good coincidence with the experimental result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instantaneous reversible soft logic upset induced by the electromagnetic interference (EMI) severely affects the performances and reliabilities of complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) inverters. This kind of soft logic upset is investigated in theory and simulation. Physics-based analysis is performed, and the result shows that the upset is caused by the non-equilibrium carrier accumulation in channels, which can ultimately lead to an abnormal turn-on of specific metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) in CMOS inverter. Then a soft logic upset simulation model is introduced. Using this model, analysis of upset characteristic reveals an increasing susceptibility under higher injection powers, which accords well with experimental results, and the influences of EMI frequency and device size are studied respectively using the same model. The research indicates that in a range from L waveband to C waveband, lower interference frequency and smaller device size are more likely to be affected by the soft logic upset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal failure induced by high power microwave (HPM) in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverter is investigated and its dependence on microwave parameters is discussed in detail. An analytical model of the temperature distribution is established and the relationships between hotspot temperature and pulse width and between hotspot temperature and frequency are predicted, which reveals a more severe rise in temperature under the influence of microwave with longer width and lower frequency. The temperature variation mechanism and the theoretical temperature model are validated and explained by the simulation. Furthermore, variation trend of damage threshold with microwave parameters is derived theoretically, and the conclusions are consistent with simulation results and reported data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latch-up effect induced by high-power microwave (HPM) in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) inverter is investigated in simulation and theory in this paper. The physical mechanisms of excess carrier injection and HPM-induced latch-up are proposed. Analysis on upset characteristic under pulsed wave reveals increasing susceptibility under shorter-width pulsed wave which satisfies experimental data, and the dependence of upset threshold on pulse repetitive frequency (PRF) is believed to be due to the accumulation of excess carriers. Moreover, the trend that HPM-induced latch-up is more likely to happen in shallow-well device is proposed.Finally, the process of self-recovery which is ever-reported in experiment with its correlation with supply voltage and power level is elaborated, and the conclusions are consistent with reported experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP)-induced damage model based on the internal damage mechanism of the GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) is established in this paper. With this model, the relationships among the damage power, damage energy, pulse width and signal amplitude are investigated. Simulation results show that the pulse width index from the damage power formula obtained here is higher than that from the empirical formula due to the hotspot transferring in the damage process of the device. It is observed that the damage energy is not a constant, which decreases with the signal amplitude increasing, and then changes little when the signal amplitude reaches up to a certain level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The damage effect and mechanism of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on the GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) are investigated in this paper. By using the device simulation software, the distributions and variations of the electric field, the current density and the temperature are analyzed. The simulation results show that there are three physical effects, i.e., the forward-biased effect of the gate Schottky junction, the avalanche breakdown, and the thermal breakdown of the barrier layer, which influence the device current in the damage process. It is found that the damage position of the device changes with the amplitude of the step voltage pulse. The damage appears under the gate near the drain when the amplitude of the pulse is low, and it also occurs under the gate near the source when the amplitude is sufficiently high, which is consistent with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the damage effect and mechanism of high power microwave (HPM) on AlGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (pHEMT) of low-noise amplifier (LNA). A detailed investigation is carried out by simulation and experiment study. A two-dimensional electro-thermal model of the typical GaAs pHEMT induced by HPM is established in this paper. The simulation result reveals that avalanche breakdown, intrinsic excitation, and thermal breakdown all contribute to damage process. Heat accumulation occurs during the positive half cycle and the cylinder under the gate near the source side is most susceptible to burn-out. Experiment is carried out by injecting high power microwave into GaAs pHEMT LNA samples. It is found that the damage to LNA is because of the burn-out at first stage pHEMT. The interiors of the damaged samples are observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Experimental results accord well with the simulation of our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]