Reliability of GaAs PIN switches for high frequency and high power applications

M/A-COM's monolithic GaAs PIN diode integrated circuit process has been used in high frequency switching applications for many years. A recent application of this process identified a unique failure mode related to operation at high RF power and low frequency. Under these high power conditions, switch insertion loss was seen to increase, particularly at lower frequencies (below 10 GHz). In an effort to better understand this failure mode, a series of reliability experiments were performed. Subsequent changes to this process were also subjected to process reliability tests.