GaN-on-GaN p-i-n diodes with avalanche capability enabled by eliminating surface leakage with hydrogen plasma treatment

Fu, Kai; He, Ziyi; Yang, Chen; Zhou, Jingan; Fu, Houqiang; Zhao, Yuji

doi:10.1063/5.0107677

GaN-on-GaN p-i-n diodes with avalanche capability enabled by eliminating surface leakage with hydrogen plasma treatment

Journal Article · Tue Aug 30 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0107677· OSTI ID:1884604

; ; ; ; ;

Traditional mesa terminations require precise angle design to reduce the electric field at the edge and surface treatment to reduce etch damage. Otherwise, the device usually suffers a premature breakdown. This work proposes the use of easy-to-implement hydrogen plasma treatment to solve the premature breakdown caused by mesa and demonstrates the avalanche capability in GaN-on-GaN p-i-n diodes. The breakdown electric field when the avalanche occurred was ∼2.3 MV/cm at room temperature for a GaN drift layer with a doping concentration of ∼7 × 1015 cm−3, which is consistent with the theoretical value. The temperature coefficient of the avalanche breakdown voltage of the devices was 4.64–4.85 × 10−4 K−1. This work shows a simple and effective approach to achieve avalanche capability in vertical GaN power devices, which can serve as an important reference for the future development of efficient and robust GaN power electronics.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0000868; SC0021230

OSTI ID:: 1884604

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 121; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of PhysicsCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (30)

Ultrawide-Bandgap Semiconductors: Research Opportunities and Challenges Tsao, J. Y.; Chowdhury, S.; Hollis, M. A. Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201600501	journal	December 2017
Near unity ideality factor and Shockley-Read-Hall lifetime in GaN-on-GaN p-n diodes with avalanche breakdown Hu, Zongyang; Nomoto, Kazuki; Song, Bo Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4937436	journal	December 2015
Experimental characterization of impact ionization coefficients for electrons and holes in GaN grown on bulk GaN substrates Cao, Lina; Wang, Jingshan; Harden, Galen Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5031785	journal	June 2018
Investigation of GaN-on-GaN vertical p - n diode with regrown p -GaN by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition Fu, Kai; Fu, Houqiang; Liu, Hanxiao Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5052479	journal	December 2018
Experimental determination of impact ionization coefficients of electrons and holes in gallium nitride using homojunction structures Ji, Dong; Ercan, Burcu; Chowdhury, Srabanti Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5099245	journal	August 2019
60 A/W high voltage GaN avalanche photodiode demonstrating robust avalanche and high gain up to 525 K Ji, Dong; Ercan, Burcu; Benson, Garrett Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5140005	journal	May 2020
Mg-implanted bevel edge termination structure for GaN power device applications Matys, Maciej; Ishida, Takashi; Nam, Kyung Pil Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0039183	journal	March 2021
Gallium nitride devices for power electronic applications Baliga, B. Jayant Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 28, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/28/7/074011	journal	June 2013
Failure analysis of normally-off GaN HEMTs under avalanche conditions Martínez, P. J.; Letz, S.; Maset, E. Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 35, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ab6bad	journal	February 2020
Implantation-free edge termination structures in vertical GaN power diodes Shurrab, Mohammed; Singh, Shakti Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 35, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ab7e43	journal	May 2020
Low-leakage kV-class GaN vertical p–n diodes with non-destructive breakdown enabled by hydrogen-plasma termination with p-GaN extension Yang, Chen; Fu, Houqiang; Fu, Kai Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 36, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/ac038f	journal	June 2021
Infrared Lattice Vibrations and Free-Electron Dispersion in GaN Barker, A. S.; Ilegems, M. Physical Review B, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.7.743	journal	January 1973
Review of Commercial GaN Power Devices and GaN-Based Converter Design Challenges Jones, Edward A.; Wang, Fei Fred; Costinett, Daniel IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, Vol. 4, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/JESTPE.2016.2582685	journal	September 2016
GaN-Based RF Power Devices and Amplifiers Mishra, U. K.; Kazior, T. E. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 96, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2007.911060	journal	February 2008
1.7-kV and 0.55-$\text{m}\Omega \cdot \text {cm}^{2}$ GaN p-n Diodes on Bulk GaN Substrates With Avalanche Capability Nomoto, Kazuki; Song, Bo; Hu, Zongyang IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2015.2506638	journal	February 2016
High Performance Vertical GaN-on-GaN p-n Power Diodes With Hydrogen-Plasma-Based Edge Termination Fu, Houqiang; Fu, Kai; Huang, Xuanqi IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 39, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2018.2837625	journal	July 2018
High Voltage Vertical GaN p-n Diodes With Hydrogen-Plasma Based Guard Rings Fu, Houqiang; Fu, Kai; Alugubelli, Shanthan R. IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2019.2954123	journal	January 2020
Trap-Mediated Avalanche in Large-Area 1.2 kV Vertical GaN p-n Diodes Liu, Jingcun; Xiao, Ming; Zhang, Ruizhe IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2020.3010784	journal	September 2020
High Voltage Vertical GaN p-n Diodes With Avalanche Capability Kizilyalli, Isik C.; Edwards, Andrew P.; Nie, Hui IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 60, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2013.2266664	journal	October 2013
Origin and Control of OFF-State Leakage Current in GaN-on-Si Vertical Diodes No authors listed IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 62, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2015.2426711	journal	July 2015
Vertical GaN Power Diodes With a Bilayer Edge Termination Dickerson, Jeramy R.; Allerman, Andrew A.; Bryant, Benjamin N. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 63, Issue 1, p. 419-425 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2015.2502186	journal	January 2016
Studies on Fabrication and Reliability of GaN High-Resistivity-Cap-Layer HEMT Hao, Ronghui; Xu, Ning; Yu, Guohao IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 65, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2018.2803521	journal	April 2018
First Observations on the Trap-Induced Avalanche Instability and Safe Operating Area Concerns in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Shankar, Bhawani; Soni, Ankit; Chandrasekar, Hareesh IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 66, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2019.2919491	journal	August 2019
Stability and Reliability of Lateral GaN Power Field-Effect Transistors del Alamo, Jesus A.; Lee, Ethan S. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 66, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2019.2931718	journal	November 2019
Designing Beveled Edge Termination in GaN Vertical p-i-n Diode-Bevel Angle, Doping, and Passivation Zeng, Ke; Chowdhury, Srabanti IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 67, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2020.2987040	journal	June 2020
Technology and Reliability of Normally-Off GaN HEMTs with p-Type Gate Meneghini, Matteo; Hilt, Oliver; Wuerfl, Joachim Energies, Vol. 10, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3390/en10020153	journal	January 2017
Design and demonstration of nearly-ideal edge termination for GaN p–n junction using Mg-implanted field limiting rings Matys, Maciej; Ishida, Takashi; Nam, Kyung Pil Applied Physics Express, Vol. 14, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.35848/1882-0786/ac0b09	journal	June 2021
4.9 kV breakdown voltage vertical GaN p–n junction diodes with high avalanche capability Ohta, Hiroshi; Asai, Naomi; Horikiri, Fumimasa Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 58, Issue SC https://doi.org/10.7567/1347-4065/ab0cfa	journal	April 2019
Deeply and vertically etched butte structure of vertical GaN p–n diode with avalanche capability Fukushima, Hayata; Usami, Shigeyoshi; Ogura, Masaya Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 58, Issue SC https://doi.org/10.7567/1347-4065/ab106c	journal	May 2019
Implantation-and etching-free high voltage vertical GaN p–n diodes terminated by plasma-hydrogenated p-GaN: revealing the role of thermal annealing Fu, Houqiang; Fu, Kai; Liu, Hanxiao Applied Physics Express, Vol. 12, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.7567/1882-0786/ab1813	journal	May 2019

Similar Records

Near unity ideality factor and Shockley-Read-Hall lifetime in GaN-on-GaN p-n diodes with avalanche breakdown

Journal Article · Mon Dec 14 19:00:00 EST 2015 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1420569

Implanted Guard Ring Edge Termination With Avalanche Capability for Vertical GaN Devices

Journal Article · Thu Oct 12 20:00:00 EDT 2023 · IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices · OSTI ID:2320379

Robust Avalanche (1.5 kV, 2 kA/cm²) in Vertical GaN Diodes on Patterned Sapphire Substrate

Journal Article · Wed Mar 05 19:00:00 EST 2025 · IEEE Electron Device Letters · OSTI ID:2573292

GaN-on-GaN p-i-n diodes with avalanche capability enabled by eliminating surface leakage with hydrogen plasma treatment

Citation Formats

References (30)

Similar Records

Related Subjects