Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Electron Transport Properties of Al x Ga 1 – x N / Ga N Transistors Based on First-Principles Calculations and Boltzmann-Equation Monte Carlo Simulations

Abstract

High-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on AlxGa1–xN/GaN heterostructures have great potential for applications in power electronics and radio frequency applications. Operating under large bias and electric fields, hot electrons are present in the channel where they can activate preexisting benign defects that cause scattering or carrier trapping, resulting in device degradation, such as threshold-voltage shifts and transconductance degradation. We report a comprehensive investigation of the electron transport properties of wurtzite-phase GaN and AlN and of an Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN HEMT by solving the Boltzmann transport equation with a synchronous ensemble Monte Carlo technique and employing first-principles electronic properties, including the full energy bands, phonon dispersions, and electron-phonon scattering rates. We find that, for electron collisions with the highest-energy optical phonon mode, nonpolar scattering by optical phonons contributes comparable to polar scattering. Polar scattering with acoustic phonons, that is, piezoelectric scattering, is found to be as important as the polar scattering with optical phonons for low-energy electrons at room temperature. Here, we compare the calculated high-field transport characteristics of bulk GaN with previously reported results. We also calculate the nonpolar acoustic deformation potential, nonpolar optical deformation potential, and high-field transport characteristics of bulk AlN. We find that inclusion of piezoelectric scattering results in amore » low-field electron mobility of approximately 450cm2/(V s), which is very close to the experimental value. Simulation results are presented for an Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN HEMT, including electric field, average carrier kinetic energy, and drift velocity in the channel. Finally, we present the carrier energy distribution function in the conducting channel, which is key to accurately determine hot-carrier-caused device degradation and identify possible routes to an improved device design.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States); Boston Univ., MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States)
  3. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
  4. Boston Univ., MA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1597930
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-09ER46554; W911NF-12-2-0023; EECS-1508898
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Applied
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2331-7019
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Electrical properties; Electron-phonon coupling; First-principles calculations; Phonons; Piezoelectricity; Field-effect transistors; III-V semiconductors; Wurtzite

Citation Formats

Fang, Jingtian, Fischetti, Massimo V., Schrimpf, Ronald D., Reed, Robert A., Bellotti, Enrico, and Pantelides, Sokrates T. Electron Transport Properties of AlxGa1–xN/GaN Transistors Based on First-Principles Calculations and Boltzmann-Equation Monte Carlo Simulations. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.044045.
Copy to clipboard
Fang, Jingtian, Fischetti, Massimo V., Schrimpf, Ronald D., Reed, Robert A., Bellotti, Enrico, & Pantelides, Sokrates T. Electron Transport Properties of AlxGa1–xN/GaN Transistors Based on First-Principles Calculations and Boltzmann-Equation Monte Carlo Simulations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.044045
Copy to clipboard
Fang, Jingtian, Fischetti, Massimo V., Schrimpf, Ronald D., Reed, Robert A., Bellotti, Enrico, and Pantelides, Sokrates T. Mon . "Electron Transport Properties of AlxGa1–xN/GaN Transistors Based on First-Principles Calculations and Boltzmann-Equation Monte Carlo Simulations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.044045. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1597930.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1597930,
title = {Electron Transport Properties of AlxGa1–xN/GaN Transistors Based on First-Principles Calculations and Boltzmann-Equation Monte Carlo Simulations},
author = {Fang, Jingtian and Fischetti, Massimo V. and Schrimpf, Ronald D. and Reed, Robert A. and Bellotti, Enrico and Pantelides, Sokrates T.},
abstractNote = {High-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on AlxGa1–xN/GaN heterostructures have great potential for applications in power electronics and radio frequency applications. Operating under large bias and electric fields, hot electrons are present in the channel where they can activate preexisting benign defects that cause scattering or carrier trapping, resulting in device degradation, such as threshold-voltage shifts and transconductance degradation. We report a comprehensive investigation of the electron transport properties of wurtzite-phase GaN and AlN and of an Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN HEMT by solving the Boltzmann transport equation with a synchronous ensemble Monte Carlo technique and employing first-principles electronic properties, including the full energy bands, phonon dispersions, and electron-phonon scattering rates. We find that, for electron collisions with the highest-energy optical phonon mode, nonpolar scattering by optical phonons contributes comparable to polar scattering. Polar scattering with acoustic phonons, that is, piezoelectric scattering, is found to be as important as the polar scattering with optical phonons for low-energy electrons at room temperature. Here, we compare the calculated high-field transport characteristics of bulk GaN with previously reported results. We also calculate the nonpolar acoustic deformation potential, nonpolar optical deformation potential, and high-field transport characteristics of bulk AlN. We find that inclusion of piezoelectric scattering results in a low-field electron mobility of approximately 450cm2/(V s), which is very close to the experimental value. Simulation results are presented for an Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN HEMT, including electric field, average carrier kinetic energy, and drift velocity in the channel. Finally, we present the carrier energy distribution function in the conducting channel, which is key to accurately determine hot-carrier-caused device degradation and identify possible routes to an improved device design.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.044045},
journal = {Physical Review Applied},
number = 4,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.044045
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 15 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Electrons in lattice fields
journal, July 1954

Valence band splittings and band offsets of AlN, GaN, and InN
journal, October 1996

  • Wei, Su‐Huai; Zunger, Alex
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 69, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.117689

Auger recombination rates in nitrides from first principles
journal, May 2009

  • Delaney, Kris T.; Rinke, Patrick; Van de Walle, Chris G.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3133359

Simulation of hot electron and quantum effects in AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors
journal, June 2004

  • Braga, N.; Mickevicius, R.; Gaska, R.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 95, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1719262

Band Gap and Band Offset of Ga 2 O 3 and ( Al x Ga 1 − x ) 2 O 3 Alloys
journal, July 2018

Effect of Varying Three-Dimensional Strain on the Emission Properties of Light-Emitting Diodes Based on (In,Ga)N/GaN Nanowires
journal, April 2017

Pseudopotential-based electron quantum transport: Theoretical formulation and application to nanometer-scale silicon nanowire transistors
journal, January 2016

  • Fang, Jingtian; Vandenberghe, William G.; Fu, Bo
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4939963

Excitonic structure of bulk AlN from optical reflectivity and cathodoluminescence measurements
journal, January 2005

QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
journal, September 2009

  • Giannozzi, Paolo; Baroni, Stefano; Bonini, Nicola
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 21, Issue 39, Article No. 395502
  • DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/21/39/395502

Determination of the first satellite valley energy in the conduction band of wurtzite GaN by near-band-gap photoemission spectroscopy
journal, June 2014

wannier90: A tool for obtaining maximally-localised Wannier functions
journal, May 2008

  • Mostofi, Arash A.; Yates, Jonathan R.; Lee, Young-Su
  • Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 178, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.cpc.2007.11.016

Variation of lattice parameters in GaN with stoichiometry and doping
journal, March 1979

The band-gap bowing of AlxGa1−xN alloys
journal, May 1999

  • Lee, S. R.; Wright, A. F.; Crawford, M. H.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 74, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.123339

High-field properties of carrier transport in bulk wurtzite GaN: A Monte Carlo perspective
journal, January 2008

  • Chen, Shiyu; Wang, Gang
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 103, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2828003

Quantum Corrected Full-Band Cellular Monte Carlo Simulation of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
journal, October 2004

  • Yamakawa, Shinya; Goodnick, Stephen; Aboud, Shela
  • Journal of Computational Electronics, Vol. 3, Issue 3-4
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10825-004-7065-6

Two-dimensional electron gases induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization charges in N- and Ga-face AlGaN/GaN heterostructures
journal, March 1999

  • Ambacher, O.; Smart, J.; Shealy, J. R.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 85, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.369664

Diamond power devices. Concepts and limits
journal, March 2005

Band structure nonlocal pseudopotential calculation of the III-nitride wurtzite phase materials system. Part I. Binary compounds GaN, AlN, and InN
journal, December 2000

  • Goano, Michele; Bellotti, Enrico; Ghillino, Enrico
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 88, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1309046

Strain effect on electronic and optical properties of GaN/AlGaN quantum‐well lasers
journal, December 1996

  • Suzuki, Masakatsu; Uenoyama, Takeshi
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.363755

Looking for Auger signatures in III-nitride light emitters: A full-band Monte Carlo perspective
journal, February 2015

  • Bertazzi, Francesco; Goano, Michele; Zhou, Xiangyu
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4908154

Full-band polar optical phonon scattering analysis and negative differential conductivity in wurtzite GaN
journal, December 2000

Theoretical Study of Ballistic Transport in Silicon Nanowire and Graphene Nanoribbon Field-Effect Transistors Using Empirical Pseudopotentials
journal, June 2017

  • Fang, Jingtian; Chen, Shanmeng; Vandenberghe, William G.
  • IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 64, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1109/TED.2017.2695960

Determination of the Conduction Band Electron Effective Mass in Hexagonal GaN
journal, September 1995

  • Drechsler, M.; Hofmann, D. M.; Meyer, B. K.
  • Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 34, Issue Part 2, No. 9B
  • DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.34.L1178

Electronic, optical, and structural properties of some wurtzite crystals
journal, August 1993

Effective masses and valence-band splittings in GaN and AlN
journal, September 1997

  • Kim, Kwiseon; Lambrecht, Walter R. L.; Segall, Benjamin
  • Physical Review B, Vol. 56, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.56.7363

Dehydrogenation of defects and hot-electron degradation in GaN high-electron-mobility transistors
journal, February 2011

  • Puzyrev, Y. S.; Roy, T.; Beck, M.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3524185

Hot-Carrier Degradation in GaN HEMTs Due to Substitutional Iron and Its Complexes
journal, April 2016

  • Mukherjee, Shubhajit; Puzyrev, Yevgeniy; Chen, Jin
  • IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 63, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1109/TED.2016.2532806

Electron effective mass in hexagonal GaN
journal, December 1999

  • Witowski, A. M.; Pakuła, K.; Baranowski, J. M.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 75, Issue 26
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.125567

Ab initio analysis of the electron‐phonon interaction in silicon
journal, May 1993

  • Yoder, P. D.; Natoli, V. D.; Martin, Richard M.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 73, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.352801

Trapping mechanisms in GaN-based MIS-HEMTs grown on silicon substrate: Trapping mechanisms in GaN-based MIS-HEMTs
journal, February 2015

  • Bisi, Davide; Meneghini, Matteo; Van Hove, Marleen
  • physica status solidi (a), Vol. 212, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201431744

High-field transport studies of gan
journal, March 2002

Increased electron mobility in n-type Si-doped AlN by reducing dislocation density
journal, October 2006

  • Taniyasu, Yoshitaka; Kasu, Makoto; Makimoto, Toshiki
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 89, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2378726

Native Point Defects in GaN: A Hybrid-Functional Study
journal, December 2016

Electron–optical-phonon scattering in wurtzite crystals
journal, July 1997

Gate Bias Dependence of Defect-Mediated Hot-Carrier Degradation in GaN HEMTs
journal, May 2014

  • Puzyrev, Yevgeniy; Paccagnella, Alessandro; Pantelides, Sokrates T.
  • IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 61, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1109/TED.2014.2309278

Monte Carlo calculation of velocity-field characteristics of wurtzite GaN
journal, August 1997

  • Bhapkar, Udayan V.; Shur, Michael S.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.365963

Valence‐band discontinuities of wurtzite GaN, AlN, and InN heterojunctions measured by x‐ray photoemission spectroscopy
journal, April 1996

  • Martin, G.; Botchkarev, A.; Rockett, A.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 68, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.116177

Monte Carlo simulation of electron transport in wurtzite aluminum nitride
journal, March 1998

The influence of the strain‐induced electric field on the charge distribution in GaN‐AlN‐GaN structure
journal, December 1993

  • Bykhovski, Alexei; Gelmont, Boris; Shur, Michael
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 74, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.355070

Theory of high field carrier transport and impact ionization in wurtzite GaN. Part II: Application to avalanche photodetectors
journal, September 2009

  • Moresco, Michele; Bertazzi, Francesco; Bellotti, Enrico
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 106, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3213364

Status of silicon carbide (SiC) as a wide-bandgap semiconductor for high-temperature applications: A review
journal, October 1996

Monte carlo analysis of electron transport in small semiconductor devices including band-structure and space-charge effects
journal, November 1988

Influence of the electron–phonon interaction on electron transport in wurtzite GaN
journal, March 2004

  • Yamakawa, Shinya; Aboud, Shela; Saraniti, Marco
  • Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 19, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1088/0268-1242/19/4/156

Theory of high field carrier transport and impact ionization in wurtzite GaN. Part I: A full band Monte Carlo model
journal, September 2009

  • Bertazzi, Francesco; Moresco, Michele; Bellotti, Enrico
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 106, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3213363

Electron Mobility in γ − Al 2 O 3 / SrTiO 3
journal, May 2018

Piezoelectric charge densities in AlGaN/GaN HFETs
journal, January 1997

  • Asbeck, P. M.; Yu, E. T.; Lau, S. S.
  • Electronics Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1049/el:19970843

Rigid ion model of high field transport in GaN
journal, April 2009

Sources of Transconductance Collapse in III–V Nitrides—Consequences of Velocity-Field Relations and Source/Gate Design
journal, June 2005

  • Wu, Y. -R.; Singh, M.; Singh, J.
  • IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 52, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1109/TED.2005.848084

Multiple Defects Cause Degradation After High Field Stress in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
journal, September 2018

  • Jiang, Rong; Shen, Xiao; Fang, Jingtian
  • IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability, Vol. 18, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1109/TDMR.2018.2847338

Electron initiated impact ionization in AlGaN alloys
journal, September 2002

Intervalley energy of GaN conduction band measured by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy
journal, December 2016

  • Marcinkevičius, Saulius; Uždavinys, Tomas K.; Foronda, Humberto M.
  • Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 23
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.94.235205

Ab initio phonon dispersions of wurtzite AlN, GaN, and InN
journal, March 2000

  • Bungaro, Claudia; Rapcewicz, Krzysztof; Bernholc, J.
  • Physical Review B, Vol. 61, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.61.6720

Quasiparticle band structure of AlN and GaN
journal, October 1993

Development of gallium oxide power devices: Development of gallium oxide power devices
journal, November 2013

  • Higashiwaki, Masataka; Sasaki, Kohei; Kuramata, Akito
  • physica status solidi (a), Vol. 211, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201330197

EPW: Electron–phonon coupling, transport and superconducting properties using maximally localized Wannier functions
journal, December 2016

Hot-carrier degradation caused interface state profile—Simulation versus experiment
journal, January 2011

  • Starkov, I.; Tyaginov, S.; Enichlmair, H.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena, Vol. 29, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1116/1.3534021

Electron Momentum and Energy Relaxation Times in Wurtzite GaN, InN and AlN: A Monte Carlo Study
journal, November 2017

Optimization algorithm for the generation of ONCV pseudopotentials
journal, November 2015

Ultrafast electron dynamics study of GaN
journal, June 1999

Electron-phonon interaction using Wannier functions
journal, October 2007

Band-structure-dependent transport and impact ionization in GaAs
journal, April 1981

Scatterings and Quantum Effects in ( Al , In ) N / GaN Heterostructures for High-Power and High-Frequency Electronics
journal, February 2018

Monte Carlo calculation of electron transport properties of bulk AlN
journal, February 1998

  • Albrecht, J. D.; Wang, R. P.; Ruden, P. P.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.366848

Phonon dispersion and Raman scattering in hexagonal GaN and AlN
journal, November 1998

The barrier height and interface effect of Au-n-GaN Schottky diode
journal, June 1995

  • Khan, M. R. H.; Detchprohm, T.; Hacke, P.
  • Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 28, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/28/6/021

Growth of high mobility GaN and AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor structures on 4H-SiC by ammonia molecular-beam epitaxy
journal, June 2001

  • Webb, James B.; Tang, H.; Bardwell, J. A.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, Issue 24
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1379785

Lattice Vibration Spectra of Aluminum Nitride
journal, June 1967

  • Collins, A. T.; Lightowlers, E. C.; Dean, P. J.
  • Physical Review, Vol. 158, Issue 3, p. 833-838
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.158.833

Gallium nitride devices for power electronic applications
journal, June 2013

High-power AlGaInN flip-chip light-emitting diodes
journal, May 2001

  • Wierer, J. J.; Steigerwald, D. A.; Krames, M. R.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1374499

Point-Defect Nature of the Ultraviolet Absorption Band in AlN
journal, May 2018

    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: