Characterization of self-heating in cryogenic high electron mobility transistors using Schottky thermometry
- 21 October 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 130 (15), 155107
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0063331
Abstract
Cryogenic low-noise amplifiers based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are widely used in applications such as radio astronomy, deep space communications, and quantum computing. Consequently, the physical mechanisms governing the microwave noise figure are of practical interest. In particular, the magnitude of the contribution of thermal noise from the gate at cryogenic temperatures remains unclear owing to a lack of experimental measurements of thermal resistance under these conditions. Here, we report measurements of gate junction temperature and thermal resistance in a HEMT at cryogenic and room temperatures using Schottky thermometry. At temperatures 20 K, we observe a nonlinear trend of thermal resistance vs power that is consistent with heat dissipation by phonon radiation. Based on this finding, we consider heat transport by phonon radiation at the low-noise bias and liquid helium temperatures and estimate that the thermal noise from the gate is several times larger than previously assumed owing to self-heating. We conclude that without improvements in thermal management, self-heating results in a practical lower limit for microwave noise figure of HEMTs at cryogenic temperatures.
Keywords
Funding Information
- National Science Foundation (1911220)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1745301)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (107614-20AW0099)
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Thermal Transport across Solid Interfaces with Nanoscale Imperfections: Effects of Roughness, Disorder, Dislocations, and Bonding on Thermal Boundary ConductanceISRN Mechanical Engineering, 2013
- Cryogenic probe station for on-wafer characterization of electrical devicesReview of Scientific Instruments, 2012
- CCD-based thermoreflectance microscopy: principles and applicationsJournal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2009
- Measurement of temperature distribution in multifinger AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors using micro-Raman spectroscopyApplied Physics Letters, 2002
- Quantitative measurement of channel temperature of GaAs devices for reliable life-time predictionIEEE Transactions on Reliability, 2002
- Self-heating effects in SOI MOSFETs and their measurement by small signal conductance techniquesIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1996
- Thermal boundary resistanceReviews of Modern Physics, 1989
- Thermal effects in p-channel MOSFETs at low temperaturesIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1989
- 32-GHz cryogenically cooled HEMT low-noise amplifiersIEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 1989
- Low-Noise Cooled GASFET AmplifiersIEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 1980