Impact of proton irradiation on dc performance of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4813785· OSTI ID:1088132

Liu, L. ^[1]; Cuervo, C. V. ^[1]; Xi, Y. Y. ^[1]; Ren, F. ^[2]; Pearton, S. J. ^[2]; Kim, H. -Y. ^[3]; Kim, J. ^[3]; Kravchenko, Ivan I ^[4]

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1. University of Florida, Gainesville
2. University of Florida
3. Korea University
4. ORNL

The effects of proton irradiation dose on dc characteristics and the reliability of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were investigated. The HEMTs were irradiated with protons at a fixed energy of 5 MeV and doses ranging from 109 to 2 1014 cm-2. For the dc characteristics, there was only minimal degradation of saturation drain current (IDSS), transconductance (gm), electron mobility and sheet carrier concentration at doses below 2 1013 cm-2, while the reduction of these parameters were 15%, 9%, 41% and 16.6%, respectively, at a dose of 2 1014 cm-2. At this same dose condition, increases of 37% in drain breakdown voltage (VBR) and of 45% in critical voltage (Vcri) were observed. The improvement of device reliability was attributed to the modification of the depletion region due to the introduction of a higher density of defects after irradiation at a higher dose.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1088132
• Journal Information: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics, Vol. 31, Issue 4; ISSN 2166-2746
• Publisher: American Vacuum Society/AIP
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English