The impact of pulse width modulation on heat accumulation in AlGaN channel HEMTs

Myren, Dominic; Jamil, Muhammad Saad; Klein, Brianna Alexandra; Allerman, Andrew A.; Armstrong, Andrew Michael; Yates, Luke; Pavlidis, Georges

doi:10.1063/5.0279372

The impact of pulse width modulation on heat accumulation in AlGaN channel HEMTs

Journal Article · Fri Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · APL Electronic Devices

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0279372· OSTI ID:2999175

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[2]; Allerman, Andrew A. ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[1]

Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sandia National Laboratories 2 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123,

The poor thermal properties of Aluminum–Gallium Nitride (AlGaN) channel High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) on sapphire limit the device’s maximum switching frequency due to high channel temperatures. Extracting the correct thermal time constants can provide guidelines for the device’s safe frequency operation. This study experimentally quantifies the impact of pulse width and duty cycle on the transient thermal dynamics of multi-finger AlGaN channel HEMTs. In most transient thermal metrology, lock-in averaging approaches are leveraged to increase signal-to-noise ratio and measure the device’s relative temperature rise. Assuming no heat accumulation, the temperature rise is used to quantify the device’s thermal resistance under continued pulsed biasing. For devices grown on sapphire substrates, however, heat accumulation leads to elevated reference temperatures and causes the differential measurement to underestimate the peak temperature. This study demonstrates the capability of transient Gate Resistance Thermometry (tGRT) to measure the absolute temperature, which is required to precisely evaluate the device’s thermal resistance. When an absolute temperature measurement is not feasible (such as thermoreflectance imaging), a solution is proposed to derive the peak temperature under pulsed biasing based on the differential temperature under pulsing and the steady-state thermal resistance (which is typically easier to obtain). Finally, additional tGRT (without averaging) is performed to demonstrate the temperature-dependent thermal time constants required to minimize heat accumulation effects.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 2999175

Report Number(s):: SAND--2025-12838J; 1777104

Journal Information:: APL Electronic Devices, Journal Name: APL Electronic Devices Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 1; ISSN 2995-8423

Publisher:: AIP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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