MODFET Reliability Study

Abstract

The objective of this program was to assess the reliability of MMICs fabricated using MODFETs as the active elements by investigating the reliability and failure mechanisms of the individual components, i.e. MODFETs, thin film resistors and MIM capacitors. A monolithic MODFET distributed amplifier with 11dB gain from 2 to 20GHz and mid-band noise figure of 3dB recently developed at Varian with the support of the Naval Research Laboratory (Contract N00014-86-C- 2048) is an example of this type of MMIC. These MODFET-based MMICs provide excellent performance. However, there are special reasons for concern over the reliability of MODFETs because their operation depends on extremely abrupt changes in material composition and doping level and there were early reports of very low MTTF. Also, there was very little reliability data on the other MMIC components, i.e. the tantalum nitride thin film resistors and the silicon nitride MIM capacitors, at the time this program was started.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA204711

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ceramic Materials
  • Conduction Bands
  • Energy Bands
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Field Effect Transistors
  • Film Resistors
  • Films
  • Heat Of Activation
  • High Temperature
  • Life Tests
  • Materials
  • Reliability
  • Resistance
  • Resistors
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Thin Film Resistors
  • Thin Films

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