Impact Ionization in GaAs MESFET’s KELVIN HUI, CHENMING HU, sestor wanes, 1, PETER GEORGE, avo PING K, KO Absact—A method» mesore impact onan creat [MESFETs Is prseted. The impact lonzaton current Is then sed {ovctelate the maou lected i the channel and the impst 1 Demopven0s [riz ansanig ofiptatonin Gans MES FET is important for both device degradation and break- down studies. Since the number of electron-hole pairs gen- crated by impact ionization is proportional to the product of the ionization coefficient and the carrier concentration, both mobile carriers and a strong electric field are required for impact ionization to occur. In MESFET's, impact ionization wwll occur atthe field singularity at the drain edge of the gate ‘where the electric field is highest (1, 2] or inside the high- Field domain along the conduction channel where the electric field is high and current density highest. The site where im pact ionization occurs first is bias and technology dependent. "The effect of surface stats in GaAs in suppressing the electric field at the field singularity poit has been studied [3]. In gen- eral, the singularity atthe drain edge of the gate determines the drain breakdown voltage when the MESFET channel is pinched off, whereas impact ionization along the channel eur~ Fent path is responsible for the weak impact ionization current with the channel open. 'A knowledge of the electric field distribution along the con- “duction path is essential for the study of impact ionization. However, de tothe negative differential mobility of electrons in GaAs at high electric fields, an accurate and analytic elec~ tte field mode! is still unavailable today. As the impact ioniza tion coefficient is exponentially proportional tothe negative inverse ofthe electric field, a small etror inthe estimation of the electric field will result in large error in the calelation ofthe ionization rate. The limited experimental data on eb {ron impact ionization rate, especially in the (110) direction in which most MESFET’s ate fabricated, has rendered both modeling and simulation of impact ionization difiutt "Accurate models for the channel electric fekd and impact. ‘onization curent (substrate current) have been developed for Mamscipereeined October 4, 1989; eed December 7, 1989. Thi swt pone yt oa Serves eros Pepa ve Chaat ape. 84 007 and an IBM ean fellows. “he mtr re wh he Eletonts Rese Laboratory nd he De pane! of lac Engineering and Comper Scenes, Unversity f Eafe, Bere, CA 672. THEE Log Suber 03420. ‘Si MOSFET's in recent years [4], [5]. The measurement of ‘mpact-onization-generated substrate current has become the ‘most convenient and effective means of characterizing hot carrier phenomena in $i MOSFET"s and has yielded the low- field impact ionization coefficient. In this paper we will ex- amine the feasibility of extending these models to GaAs MES: FETs. 1, Tuzony “The holes generated by impact ionization along the channel ‘current path wil follow the eletrc field lines and be collected at either the gate or source electrode. Two-dimensional (2-D) 104 104 ee a eeeeeeceaea ERB Ee ates Vug Fg. 2._ Gat caret ves dang vlogs Vay fr ere a oscars bis tars fom 101002 ¥ in ep of 02 V. The Ser Sl ip crea wh ere fig) be approximately qual to Vzs. Ths is much higher than the ‘value in normal FET operation (Vg = 0). Using this method, the sum of the gate-source and gate-drain diode leakage cur- rents measured individually ean be much larger than the ac- tual gate leakage under normal bias. A more accurate value of gate-drain leakage current is obtained by biasing the MES FET in the pinch-off region and subtracting the gate-source leakage from the measured gate current. In pinch-off the drain currea is very small and soi the contribution to gate current by impact ionization, The electric field distribution, on the ‘other hand, will resemble that under normal FET bias. In our measurements we set Vy t0 1.4 times the threshold voltage. Fig. 2 shows the gate current of « depletionsmode 250- um x 0.S-am ion-implanted recessed-gute GaAs MESFET ‘measured at differen gate and drain biases. The channel was, formed by a 50-keV Si implant into a Cr-doped HB substrate, with dose ¢ = 10! em~, The nominal Ly, and Lya valves ‘are 0,25 and 0.5 wm, respectively. The impact ionization cu- rent Fy is obtained by subtracting Isseay fom Ty according to (4). Tae increases rapidly with Var and is often many or- ders of magnitude higher than say. Is also a function of Vax since itis dependent on Fay (Se€ (2). Fig. 3 shows the normal Jay versus Vy characteristics with superimposed constant yells contours. According 2 (3), Teller is unique fonction of Vas ~ Vue since the char- ‘scteristc length 1 i @ constant, Thus these contours also rep- resent constant Vy ~ Vx contours. Indeed, the contours in Fig. 3 re found to be parallel to cach other. When 2 con- tour is parallel shifted toward the origi, it gives a reasonable saturation voltage Vs contour. Experimental data shown in Fig, 4 demonstrate this behavior for differen values of Vs Using (3) and (5), Fig. 4 can be repoted to yield graph of ionization rate versus 1/Emax a8 shown in Fig. 5, A valve ‘of 0.34 um was chosen for the effective length to translate Vas ~ Vi ito Eye according 1 (3) and rake the a data match the impact ionization coeicient measured by Pearsall et al (7 a high electric fields. This value of is very close to the value of 0.36 um obtained from Fig. 1. Fig. Sextends the cy data range beyond what is available in the literature by five orders of magnitude For electric fields