Microwave/RF MMIC Reliability Physics & Test Methods

This tutorial is the first in the series addressing the reliability aspects of RFIC and MMICs. An overview of the various process technologies that enable high frequency signal to be manipulated in an integrated circuit will be followed by a discussion of some of their failure mechanisms. Particular attention in this talk will be on HEMT technologies that presently offer the highest frequencies of operation. Some of the failure mechanisms to be included are gate sinking, capacitor defects, recess surface effects, ohmic metallization degradation, and hydrogen poisoning. The mathematical statistics of reliability prediction will also be given some attention in this tutorial, especially the prediction of failure rates from lifetest data and defect distributions.

John Scarpulla is a senior scientist in the Electronics and Photonics Laboratory at Aerospace. He has just returned to Aerospace after working previously at Northrup-Grumman Space Technology where he was Reliability Section Head responsible for reliability and radiation effects related to GaAs and InP microwave integrated circuits. Prior to that, he worked as a reliability engineer at Texas Instruments/Silicon Systems and performed work on mixed signal BiCMOS hot carrier and electromigration reliability issues. While previously at Aerospace from 1990-95, he was primarily responsible for radiation effects testing and analysis. He has also worked at SAIC, GE, and RCA where he held circuit design, device physics and reliability engineering positions. John has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, an MSEE from University of Pennsylvannia, and has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific papers.