Drain current transient characterization of P-channel GaAs MESFET

Graduation date: 1990GaAs MESFETs are widely used in high speed integrated circuits (ICs) and\ud microwave circuits. Due to the materials and processing methods used in GaAs\ud MESFET fabrication, deep level traps in the substrate materials have a strong influence\ud on device performance.\ud In this work we used the drain current transient characterization to study the\ud material defect effects onp-channel GaAs MESFETs. We characterized the devices under\ud DC conditions and determined the proper bias conditions for transient measurements.\ud Then we performed the drain current transient characterization at different temperatures.\ud From the temperature dependent current transient results, we used a one-level model to\ud extract the activation energies and capture cross sections for deep levels both in the\ud channel region and in the substrate region. We associated the level in the channel region\ud with an antisite defect E₊/₊₊(AsGa) and the level in the substrate region with another\ud antisite defect E₀/₊(AsGa). Both levels are related to the EL2 complex