Breakdown and high-field reliability issues in heterojunction FETs for microwave power amplification

High-field reliability issues connected with hot electron and impact ionization are typically the reliability bottleneck of power FETs for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. This work deals with some aspects of this problem, from characterization and accelerated stressing techniques to the physical degradation mechanisms, using power AlGaAs/GaAs HFETs as a test vehicle