Thermal optimization of GaN-on-Si HEMTs with plastic package

Authors :: Liu, R.
Schreurs, D.
De Raedt, W.
Vanaverbeke, F.
Mertens, R.
De Wolf, I.
Source :: Microelectronics Reliability. Sep2011, Vol. 51 Issue 9-11, p1788-1791. 4p.
Publication Year :: 2011
Abstract: Abstract: In this paper, the degradation of a GaN-on-Si based RF power amplifier is investigated by means of electrical characterization. The reliability issues identified during this work are clearly related to the high thermal resistance between the device and the heat sink, which causes gate-leakage current and output power degradation. Moreover, we have demonstrated a low cost thermal optimization approach by increasing the thermal dissipation area and reducing the device carrier thickness. Measurement results show that the saturated output power can be increased from 1W up to 5W without device degradation at 3.8GHz. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]