Determination of the channel temperature in a GaAs MESFET from the emission transients of deep traps

A technique is proposed by which the self-heating in the channel of a GaAs MESFET may be determined from the observation of thermally activated transients due to the emission of electrons from indigenous deep traps. The advantage of this technique over others is that its spatial resolution is automatically equal to the channel length. The feasibility of the technique has been demonstrated on 1 micron gate-length small-signal devices, for which a thermal resistivity of 200°C mm/W was found.