Lifetesting GaAs MMICs under RF stimulus

Abstract

The authors summarize very-high-temperature life-test results on monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) switches and attenuators designed, assembled, and screened by Motorola GEG and manufactured and tested by TriQuint. It was found that individual heating and RF bias resulted in data that indicate that these devices degrade linearly with lognormal failure distributions and compare favorably with historical DC life-testing of MMIC amplifiers. Electrical measurements indicated MESFET gate degradation was occurring, which was confirmed by failure analysis. The failure mechanism was found to be highly accelerated by temperature and is not expected to impede device lifetimes at normal use conditions for thousands of years.<>