Study On The High Power Effects On Typical Semiconductot Devices

High power microwave(HPM) is a promising novel technology for future use.Owing to its inherent character, HPM is able to disturb, suppress or damage electronicequipment. The effects of HPM on electronic equipment are finally added on electronicdevices, mainly on semiconductor devices. Based on the HPM nonlinear effects, theeffects on bipolar transistors and MOSFETs are selectively studied to aid anti-HPMdesign of semiconductor devices.HPM nonlinear effects are studied systematically and it is pointed out thatnonlinear effect is an essential mechanism when HPM energy is coupled into electronicsystems and further destroys its inner semiconductors. When the power level is low,semiconductors have nonlinear-demodulation effect, nonlinear-frequency-conversioneffect and nonlinear-compression effect; with the power increasing to certain threshold,nonlinear-damage effect takes place. The nonlinear-demodulation effect andnonlinear-frequency-conversion effect are the main mechanism when High Frequency(HF) HPM energy converts to Low Frequency (LF) energy and interferes or disturbs LFelectronic system. Experimental results show that demodulation voltage orfrequency-conversion voltage increases as HPM power increases, while the increasingrate decreases. Furthermore, the empirical formula of demodulation voltage orfrequency-conversion voltage vs. HPM power, and the effect law that demodulationefficiency decreases with the increases of out-band microwave frequency is summarized.The nonlinear–compression effect is the main mechanism when HPM acts onmicrowave components. Simulation and experiment results show that the gain loss ofmicrowave components increases as input HPM power increases. Then the empiricalformula describing gain loss vs. input power is obtained. The nonlinear-damage effectis the primary mechanism when HPM damage occurs in semiconductor. Researchshows that the defects cannot be avoided inside the semiconductor. And it is the defectsthat cause HPM breakdown in PN junction or oxide layer, then low resistance channelsform in these positions, finally result in degradation or damage of semiconductordevices. The higher of HPM power acts on semiconductor, the larger damage current,damage dissipation power and damage levels, and related empirical formulas are alsoobtained.HPM effects on bipolar transistors have been intensively studied throughexperiments, failure analysis and simulation, and the results show that the breakdown ofBE junction is the fundamental mechanism of bipolar failure induced by HPM. The physical process and model are proposed based on the experimental phenomena ofinjecting HPM into the BJT from base. The simulation result shows that the mainmechanism of failure and degradation of BJT caused by HPM is that the inducedvoltage pulses generated by HPM lead to the burn-up and the formation of the fuseelement and defect in the base. The burn area and defect number vary with the powerduring time of HPM on the devices, and cause the devices failure and the change of theDC characteristics.The simulation results match much well with the phenomena of theBJT HPM effect experiment，which indicates that the analysis in this paper is correct.HPM effects on MOSFETs have been intensively studied through experiments,failure analysis and simulation, and the results show that the breakdown of grid-oxideand channel burnout are the fundamental mechanism of MOSFETs’ failure caused byHPM. A two-dimensional electro-thermal model is established for the typicalsilicon-based MOSFET under HPM influence. Using the model, the responses of theinternal electric field, the current density and the temperature of devices to HPMinjection are obtained. Then the changes of the internal temperature distributions insidedevices with the HPM injection time is analyzed.The simulation and analysis resultsshow that the peak temperature occurs near the drain-substrate PN junction. Because theinternal peak temperature of devices continually increase to the melting point of thesilicon material under HPM injection, the fuse resistor forms in the region near thedrain-substrate PN junction firstly. As a result, the device is damaged because of thefuse generation. At last, through comparison of the I-V characteristics of the devicesconsidering the fuse structure in devices caused by HPM with the damaged devices inHPM injection experiment, the damage mechanism of devices under HPM injectionintroduced in this paper is confirmed.HPM effects on ICs are also studied. Results of experiments, parametersmeasurement and failure analysis show that breakdown of PN junctions in the IC is thefundamental mechanism of IC failure. Abnormal parameters appearing at damagedfunction module in IC Failure analysis confirm it.