Heavy ion irradiation effects on GaN/AlGaN high electron mobility transistor failure at off-state

Journal Article · Wed Aug 21 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Microelectronics and Reliability

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2019.113493· OSTI ID:1650173

Islam, Zahabul ^[1]; Paoletta, Angela L. ^[2]; Monterrosa, Anthony M. ^[3]; Schuler, Jennifer D. ^[4]; Rupert, Timothy J. ^[4]; Hattar, Khalid ^[3]; Glavin, Nicholas ^[5]; Haque, Aman ^[1]

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1. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
3. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
4. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
5. Air Force Research Lab. (AFRL), Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (United States). Materials and Manufacturing Directorate

We investigate the effects of ion irradiation on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility electron transistors using in-situ transmission electron microscopy. The experiments are performed inside the microscope to visualize the defects, microstructure and interfaces of ion irradiated transistors during operation and failure. Here, experimental results indicate that heavy ions such as Au⁴⁺ can create a significant number of defects such as vacancies, interstitials and dislocations in the device layer. It is hypothesized that these defects act as charge traps in the device layer and the resulting charge accumulation lowers the breakdown voltage. Sequential energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping allows us to track individual chemical elements during the experiment, and the results suggest that the electrical degradation in the device layer may originate from oxygen and nitrogen vacancies.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1650173
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1776129
• Report Number(s): SAND--2020-8429J; 689939
• Journal Information: Microelectronics and Reliability, Journal Name: Microelectronics and Reliability Vol. 102; ISSN 0026-2714
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS)
high electron mobility transistor (HEMT)
in-situ transmission electron microscopy (in-situ TEM)
ion irradiation