Non-destructive, high resolution channel temperature measurements of compound semiconductor devices

A technique based on infrared-emission spectroscopy has been found to be useful for non-contact measurement of the temperature of a hot spot in the gate channel of a GaAs metal/semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET). Temperature measurements are important for the development of high-power GaAs MESFET and other advanced semiconductor devices because hot spots can affect operation and reduce operational lifetimes. Passive infrared-sensing techniques provide temperature measurements with a spatial resolution of 15 /spl mu/m, which is much too coarse for determining local distributions of temperature in state-of-the-art devices with submicron-sized gate structures. The present technique affords a spatial resolution of about 0.5 /spl mu/m.