Burnout properties of microwave pulse injected on GaAs PHEMT

Abstract The burnout properties of microwave pulse injected on the low noise amplifier (LNA) based on a gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) are experimentally investigated by means of a microwave pulse injection at 1.5 GHz, 45 ns. The results show that after the injection of a microwave pulse with enough amplitude the working current of the LNA is increased, the gain decreased and the noise figure increased. The reason is that the GaAs PHEMT is permanently damaged. Consequently, the resistances among the electrodes of the damaged GaAs PHEMT are reduced; the saturated drain current and gate leakage current are increased significantly; and the transistor presents the resistive output property. In addition, the gate metal strip and the material around the gate metal strip are found to be burned out by means of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) inspection.