Field plate related reliability improvements in GaN-on-Si HEMTs

State of the art GaN on Silicon HEMTs fabricated with and without a field-plate structure have been tested by means of DC and RF reliability tests. The introduction of the field-plate structure greatly improves device reliability both during DC as well as RF testing. Results are thus suggesting that reliability in NOFP and FP devices is mainly limited by the high electric fields within the device structure causing an increase in traps concentration. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.