What is GaAs (gallium arsenide)?

A III-V compound semiconductor of gallium and arsenic with a direct band gap of about 1.42 eV. Its high electron mobility makes it useful for high-frequency transistors and infrared LEDs and lasers.

Field: Compound semiconductors

GaAs (gallium arsenide) in the explanations

Questions that mention GaAs (gallium arsenide) (38)

  1. What type of band structure does gallium arsenide (GaAs) have?
  2. What is the main reason GaAs has been used in RF amplifiers for mobile phones and similar applications?
  3. What is the approximate wavelength of light emitted by GaAs, which has a band gap of about 1.42 eV?
  4. Which correctly describes the typical diameter of wafers for compound semiconductors such as GaAs?
  5. Why is care needed when handling GaAs wafer processing debris and waste?
  6. Which is an example of an application of HBTs (heterojunction bipolar transistors) made from InP or GaAs?
  7. When silicon is added to GaAs to make it n-type, which site does the silicon mainly occupy?
  8. What is the advantage of using semi-insulating GaAs substrates for GaAs RF ICs?
  9. How does the thermal conductivity of GaAs compare with that of silicon?
  10. Which elements make up gallium arsenide (GaAs)?
  11. What is the gate structure of the MESFET, long used as a high-frequency GaAs transistor?
  12. Which is one reason it is difficult to build silicon-like CMOS circuits in GaAs?
  13. What is a high-frequency IC called that integrates transistors together with passive components such as inductors and capacitors on a substrate such as GaAs?
  14. When a strong field is applied to GaAs, electrons transfer to another valley with lower mobility, and negative differential resistance appears in which current decreases as the field rises. Which oscillator device uses this?
  15. When a polar compound semiconductor such as GaAs is grown on a non-polar silicon substrate, what is the boundary called between regions in which the Ga and As positions are inverted?

Related terms

GaN (gallium nitride) Mobility InP (indium phosphide) SiC (silicon carbide) Effective mass 2DEG (two-dimensional electron gas) CMOS HEMT (high-electron-mobility transistor) Native oxide Band gap

Back to the glossary