Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Feiyuan Yang, Manikant Singh, Michael J. Uren, Trevor Martin, Hassan Hirshy, Michael A. Casbon, Paul J. Tasker, Martin Kuball
Summary: The breakdown mechanism in 0.25-μm gate length AlGaN/GaN-on-SiC transistors is investigated using the drain current injection technique. The results show that breakdown can be divided into two stages, which are related to gate voltage levels and material characteristics.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Sheng Li, Siyang Liu, Chi Zhang, Ningbo Li, Xinyi Tao, Jiaxing Wei, Long Zhang, Weifeng Sun
Summary: This study investigates the electrical parameter degradations of p-GaN HEMTs under repetitive UIS stresses, demonstrating that trapping effects near the gate region dominate the degradation. The experimental methods and TCAD simulations validated the findings, showing that the trapping effects have a significant impact on device performance.
IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Andrea Minetto, Nicola Modolo, Luca Sayadi, Christian Koller, Clemens Ostermaier, Matteo Meneghini, Enrico Zanoni, Gerhard Prechtl, Sebastien Sicre, Bernd Deutschmann, Oliver Haberlen
Summary: This study analyzes the impact of drain field plate (FP) length on the semi-ON degradation of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, finding that longer FP samples exhibit faster and more severe drain current decrease. Simulation results indicate a stronger hot electron trapping in longer FP samples, attributed to a different electric field distribution.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Qihao Song, Ruizhe Zhang, Joseph P. Kozak, Jingcun Liu, Qiang Li, Yuhao Zhang
Summary: This study fills the gap in the comprehensive investigation of surge-energy robustness of cascode GaN HEMTs. It is found that the cascode withstands surge energy by the overvoltage capability of the GaN HEMT and accompanied avalanche in the Si MOSFET. In single-event UIS tests, the cascode fails at a lower peak overvoltage than its static breakdown voltage. In repetitive UIS tests, the failure boundary is frequency dependent.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Tamiris Grossl Bade, Hassan Hamad, Adrien Lambert, Herve Morel, Dominique Planson
Summary: The instability of threshold voltage in p-GaN gate high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) has been identified in recent years. This can cause reliability issues in switching applications and may be accompanied by other degradation mechanisms. In this study, a Vth measurement protocol originally established for SiC MOSFETs is applied to GaN HEMTs using the triple sense protocol, which involves preconditioning the transistor gate with voltage bias. Experimental results have confirmed that the proposed protocol enhances the stability of Vth measurement, even after experiencing degrading voltage bias stress on both drain and gate.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jiabo Chen, Zhihong Liu, Haiyong Wang, Yue He, Xiaoxiao Zhu, Jing Ning, Jincheng Zhang, Yue Hao
Summary: In this study, a GaN complementary FET technology was monolithically integrated on a Si substrate, showing excellent noise margin and current density performance. These results demonstrate the great potential of this technology in the applications of GaN power modules.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Ankit Soni, Mayank Shrivastava
Summary: This study investigates the impact of different charge sources on the electric field distribution in HEMT through the use of drain and gate field plates. The results show that the role of field plates varies with different buffer types, and the improvement of breakdown voltage is mainly attributed to the mitigation of gate injection rather than the suppression of avalanche generation.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
M. P. Sruthi, Ajay Shanbhag, Anjan Chakravorty, Nandita Dasgupta, Amitava Dasgupta
Summary: Fin-shaped tri-gate structure is an alternative way to achieve positive threshold voltage shift in GaN-based HEMTs. The side-gate capacitance estimation and model development are crucial for predicting the threshold voltage of the device.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Rui Gao, Chang Liu, Zhiyuan He, Yiqiang Chen, Yijun Shi, Xiaoling Lin, Xiaowen Zhang, Zhizhe Wang, Yunfei En, Guoguang Lu, Yun Huang
Summary: In this study, the interaction between hydrogen poisoning (HP) and bias stress in AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs was explored. It was found that HP results in a threshold voltage shift and a decrease in DC resistance in the device. Additionally, passivation of interface states at the SiNx/AlGaN interface was observed due to HP.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Zhifu Hu, Shaohua Zhou, Ruicong He, Qijun Zhang
Summary: This study replaces the single-gate HEMT with a dual-gate HEMT based on the distributed stacked structure VVA proposed by Qorvo, achieving a broadband and high-power tolerance voltage variable attenuator (VVA) while reducing chip area and cost. Experimental results show that the dual-gate HEMT VVA outperforms the single-gate HEMT VVA in terms of power compression point, insertion loss, dynamic range, and chip area.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Li-Chuan Sun, Shih-Kai Lin, Yu-Hsuan Yeh, Yu-Fa Tu, Yung-Fang Tan, Kuan-Ju Zhou, Tsung-Ming Tsai, Ting-Chang Chang
Summary: In this letter, a light recovery method is proposed to analyze defect concentration and energy level distribution by changing the wavelength. The AlGaN/GaN HEMTs experience severe electrical degradation under HCS conditions, with a shift in threshold voltage and decrease in on/off current. TCAD simulations are performed to examine the degradation behaviors and the use of illumination method is found to effectively recover the electrical characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
M. -A. Jaud, W. Vandendaele, B. Rrustemi, A. G. Viey, S. Martin, C. Le Royer, L. Vauche, S. Martinie, R. Gwoziecki, R. Modica, F. Iucolano, T. Poiroux
Summary: Unexpected threshold voltage behaviors were observed in GaN-on-Si MOSc-HEMTs, attributed to conduction band confinement, especially at gate corners, which is influenced by the fully recessed gate configuration and back-barrier efficiency.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jielong Liu, Minhan Mi, Jiejie Zhu, Pengfei Wang, Yuwei Zhou, Siyu Liu, Qing Zhu, Meng Zhang, Bin Hou, Hong Wang, Ling Yang, Xiaohua Ma, Yue Hao
Summary: A hybrid Schottky-ohmic drain technology is proposed for high-frequency transistors, which can significantly improve the performance of the devices, including reducing resistance, increasing breakdown voltage, suppressing current collapse, and maintaining good DC and RF characteristics after large-signal measurements.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jun-Hyeok Choi, Dohyung Kim, Seo-Jun Lee, Ji-Hun Kim, Yoon-A Cho, Byoung-Gue Min, Dong Min Kang, Hyun-Seok Kim
Summary: This study proposes an approach to enhance frequency characteristics for AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) by using a special packaging structure. The results show that this approach can significantly improve the cutoff frequency and maximum oscillation frequency, achieving outstanding RF performance without degrading the DC characteristics.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Weiyi Li, Brian Romanczyk, Matthew Guidry, Emre Akso, Nirupam Hatui, Christian Wurm, Wenjian Liu, Pawana Shrestha, Henry Collins, Christopher Clymore, Stacia Keller, Umesh K. Mishra
Summary: This article presents breakthrough N-polar GaN-on-sapphire deep-recess metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS)-high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with outstanding performance at W-band. The use of a thin GaN cap layer, atomic layer deposition (ALD) ruthenium (Ru) gate metallization, and high-quality GaN-on-sapphire epitaxy contributes to the excellent power performance achieved. The N-polar GaN-on-sapphire technology shows great potential for millimeter-wave power amplifier applications with high efficiency and power density.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Junjie Yang, Jin Wei, Yanlin Wu, Muqin Nuo, Zhenghao Chen, Xuelin Yang, Maojun Wang, Bo Shen
Summary: A 600-V p-GaN gate HEMT with a buried hole spreading channel (BHSC) is demonstrated to suppress the buffer trap related dynamic R-ON degradation. The BHSC, located between u-GaN and buried AlGaN, enables effective spreading of holes along its channel to screen the negative buffer charges injected from the gate. This spreading effect is verified by detection of hole current from the sidewall of BHSC. The proposed device exhibits immunity against buffer trapping, as demonstrated by a positive substrate stress test, achieving nearly zero buffer trap related dynamic R-ON degradation even after a 400-V substrate stress with a delay as short as approximately 20 μs.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jiayue Xu, Xuan Liu, Bing Xie, Yilong Hao, Cheng P. Wen, Jin Wei, Maojun Wang
Summary: This study focuses on the bias-dependent reverse leakage current and carrier depletion process of vertical gallium nitride (GaN)-on-GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with fluorine ion-implanted guard rings (GRs). The reverse leakage characteristics go through ohmic conduction, thermionic field emission (TFE), and space charge limited conduction (SCLC) model as the reverse bias increases. Ion-implanted GRs can effectively reduce the leakage current at low biases, and kinks in the reverse current-voltage curves are related to the electric field spreading effect of individual GR. The electric field modulation mechanism of ion-implanted GRs is discussed based on the analysis of reverse leakage current.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
(2023)
Article
Physics, Applied
Junbo Liu, Wensong Zou, Jiawei Chen, Mengyuan Hua, Di Lu, Jun Ma
Summary: This study focused on investigating the transport-limited trapping effects in GaN-on-Si buffer layers and the impact of buffer layer thickness on these effects. The results showed that increasing the buffer layer thickness improved the stability of the device and reduced current collapse. This enhancement was mainly attributed to the reduced vertical electric field within the thickened epitaxy.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Physics, Applied
Yat Hon Ng, Zheyang Zheng, Li Zhang, Ruizi Liu, Tao Chen, Sirui Feng, Qiming Shao, Kevin J. Chen
Summary: This study investigates the hole distribution and transport in the p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure through experimental measurements and simulations. The results show that the p-channel of this structure is composed of bulk holes in the p-GaN and a two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG) at the p-GaN/AlGaN interface. Both components contribute significantly to lateral p-type conduction at room temperature. The complementary temperature responses of these components enhance conductivity at both high and low temperatures.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Tao Chen, Zheyang Zheng, Sirui Feng, Li Zhang, Kevin J. Chen
Summary: A GaN-based non-volatile memory device with improved endurance, fast programming speed, and long retention time is proposed in this study. The endurance is improved by using a less destructive programming scheme based on back gate injection and reducing the doping concentration of the p-channel. The device can withstand over 1010 program/erase cycles and requires a -10V/200ns pulse for programming without compromising the retention time.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Sirui Feng, Hang Liao, Tao Chen, Junting Chen, Yan Cheng, Mengyuan Hua, Zheyang Zheng, Kevin J. Chen
Summary: The mechanism of carrier dynamics in the gate stack of a Schottky-type p-GaN gate double-channel GaN HEMT was investigated through the analysis of electroluminescence characteristics. It was discovered that the AlN insertion layer in the DC-HEMT acts as a blocking layer to prevent hole injection from the gate to the channel, creating a hole-storage effect that effectively suppresses channel-to-gate electron spillover under forward gate bias.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Jingjing Yu, Jin Wei, Maojun Wang, Junjie Yang, Yanlin Wu, Jiawei Cui, Teng Li, Jinyan Wang, Bo Shen
Summary: A 650V p-GaN gate HEMT with Schottky source extension is proposed to enhance short-circuit reliability. The device shows reduced saturation current due to the pinch-off point formed at the edge of the Schottky source extension. Compared to conventional p-GaN gate HEMT, the proposed device can withstand higher short-circuit pulse voltage. The device also exhibits slower degradation after multiple short-circuit stress/test cycles.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Yan Cheng, Zheyang Zheng, Yat Hon Ng, Kevin J. Chen
Summary: This study characterizes and evaluates the RF linearity of an enhancement-mode p-GaN gate HEMT on a 200-mm high-resistivity silicon substrate. The device exhibits good linearity performances based on its flat transconductance, small derivatives, and uniform small-signal parameters within the operating range.
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Haohao Chen, Junting Chen, Chengcai Wang, Zuoheng Jiang, Mengyuan Hua
Summary: Gate reliability and threshold voltage instability issues in enhancement-mode pGaN gate HEMTs were investigated. A n-GaN/p-GaN gate structure was proposed to reduce gate leakage and increase gate swing. The VTH tunability and stability of p-GaN gate HEMTs were also studied, achieving wide range VTH and eliminating hole-deficiency-induced VTH shifts with a p-FET bridge.
2023 7TH IEEE ELECTRON DEVICES TECHNOLOGY & MANUFACTURING CONFERENCE, EDTM
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Meng Zhang, Yamin Zhang, Baikui Li, Shiwei Feng, Mengyuan Hua, Xi Tang, Jin Wei, Kevin J. Chen
Summary: In this study, a new SiC planar IGBT with oxide shield is proposed to achieve an improved trade-off between on-state voltage drop and maximum gate oxide electric field. Through TCAD simulations, it is found that the proposed SiC IGBT can provide a low VON and keep Eox-m at a small value by adopting a larger distance between neighboring p-bodies and using oxide shielding structures. In addition, the proposed SiC-IGBT exhibits better trade-off between turn-off energy loss and VON compared to the conventional SiC planar IGBT.
IEEE JOURNAL OF THE ELECTRON DEVICES SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Xuan Liu, Maojun Wang, Jin Wei, Yilong Hao, Xingyu Fu, Xuelin Yang, Bo Shen
Summary: In this study, a high-performance quasi-vertical GaN-on-Si Schottky barrier diode was fabricated using in-situ p-GaN layer with hydrogen plasma treatment and controlled diffusion. The results showed a significant improvement in the breakdown voltage and on/off current ratio of the diode.
IEEE JOURNAL OF THE ELECTRON DEVICES SOCIETY
(2023)