LOW LEAKAGE, HIGH-PERFORMANCE GAAS-BASED HIGH-TEMPERATURE ELECTRONICS

This paper reports on substantial improvements in device performance and reduction of the parasitic and leakage currents in gallium arsenide (GaAs) metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET) devices and circuits at temperatures up to 350 degrees C. These improvements in device performance, which have been verified on over 300 transistors measured on twenty different wafers, are obtained by a judicious choice of substrate material, contact technology, device layout, and device biasing. In addition, these MESFETs also displayed an enhanced resistance to breakdown at elevated temperatures. The methods used to realize these improvements have general applicability and work equally well with both enhancement and depletion n-channel MESFET's.