Characterising GaN transistors using contactless probes

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Driven by commercial evolutions of wireless communication systems, electrification of transport, and wearable technology, semiconductor transistors have reached unprecedented complexity levels. Each transistor forms a complex mesh of miniature structures that are interacting with each other. It is well known that each part within the transistor will be subject to a unique electrical condition. Yet the measurement of transistors focuses on the common and averaged currents and voltages of all these structures together. Consequently, the optimum operation of transistors does not consider the varying conditions within the transistor itself.The purpose of this project is to overcome the fundamental lack of information and understanding on how the different transistor elements behave through actual data. To achieve its goals the project will investigate the use of miniaturised probes to sense the magnetic and electric probes that can be scanned across semiconductor transistors to obtain a quantitative high-resolution image of the existing distribution currents and voltage waveforms. The key objective within this project is to establish new techniques to sense and quantify the electric and magnetic near fields across a compound semiconductor device over a large range of frequencies (up to 100GHz) and then develop from actual data a fundamental understanding on how distributed transistor structures impact their frequency response.