Critical Voltage for Electrical Degradation of GaN High-Electron Mobility Transistors

By Jungwoo Joh, J. D. del Alamo. IEEE Electron Device Letters, 2008

305 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have found that there is a critical drain-to-gate voltage beyond which GaN high-electron mobility transistors start to degrade in electrical-stress experiments. The critical voltage depends on the detailed voltage biasing of the device during electrical stress. It is higher in the OFF state and high-power state than at VDS = 0. In addition, as |VGS| increases, the critical voltage decreases. We have also found that the stress current does not affect the critical voltage although soft degradation at low voltages takes place at high stress currents. All of our findings are consistent with a degradation mechanism based on crystallographic-defect formation due to the inverse piezoelectric effect. Hot-electron-based mechanisms seem to be in contradiction with our experimental results.

Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7c8eca7b3c246c1e595da30b0f6fd3e30dcd7182

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Condensed Matter Physics

In Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

In Materials Chemistry

Citations in the corpus

Integrated Optical and Electrical Analysis: Identifying Location and Properties of Traps in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs During Electrical Stress (2010, background): “Degradation mechanisms have been attributed to hot-electron induced trap generation [1], converse piezoelectric effect [4], [5], or deep-trap-level generation [6].”
Testing the Temperature Limits of GaN-Based HEMT Devices (2010, result): “This may also be indicated by a recent experiment reporting on AlGaN/ GaN MISFET technology, where the gate metal had been deposited prior to the ohmic contact formation (and alloying at 850 ◦C) [35].”
A Current-Transient Methodology for Trap Analysis for GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (2011, background): “In general, although visible light works in many cases, ultraviolet light is preferable for detrapping purposes, particularly if deep levels are present.”
AlGaN/GaN-Based HEMTs Failure Physics and Reliability: Mechanisms Affecting Gate Edge and Schottky Junction (2013, unknown): “The effect has been confirmed by several authors [35], [44], [49]–[52].”