High Temperature, High Power RF Life Testing Of GaN On SiC RF Power Transistors

By Brian Barr, Engineering Manager and Dan Burkhard, Quality Manager, M/A-COM Technology Solutions RF Power Products Group

As GaN power device technology matures and gains acceptance in the market place, suppliers who provide products using this promising technology must prove its reliability. This paper will provide an overview of the testing approaches used to establish failure rates and will provide a comparison of DC and RF based HTOL methods. The primary focus of this paper will be the high power RF HTOL test method used by M/A-COM Technology Solutions to qualify its new MAGX line of discrete GaN on SiC RF Power Transistors. An overview of the results and a comparison of the reliability of GaN with respect to older silicon based power semiconductor technologies will be discussed.