Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.5370/KIEE.2017.66.9.1351

Radiation Hardness Evaluation of GaN-based Transistors by Particle-beam Irradiation  

Keum, Dongmin (Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Hongik University)
Kim, Hyungtak (Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Hongik University)
Publication Information
The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers / v.66, no.9, 2017 , pp. 1351-1358 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this work, we investigated radiation hardness of GaN-based transistors which are strong candidates for next-generation power electronics. Field effect transistors with three types of gate structures including metal Schottky gate, recessed gate, and p-AlGaN layer gate were fabricated on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure on Si substrate. The devices were irradiated with energetic protons and alpha-particles. The irradiated transistors exhibited the reduction of on-current and the shift of threshold voltage which were attributed to displacement damage by incident energetic particles at high fluence. However, FET operation was still maintained and leakage characteristics were not degraded, suggesting that GaN-based FETs possess high potential for radiation-hardened electronics.
Keywords
Gallium nitride(GaN); Proton irradiation; Alpha-particle; Power semiconductor; Wide bandgap(WBG);
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 U. K. Mishra, P. Parikh, and Y. Wu, "AlGaN/GaN HEMTs-an overview of device operation and applications", Proc. IEEE, Vol. 90, No. 6, pp. 1022-1031, June 2002.   DOI
2 L. F. Eastman and U. K. Mishra, "The toughest yet [GaN Transistor]", IEEE spect., Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 29-33, May 2002.   DOI
3 R. Gaska, Q. Chen, J. Yang, A. Osinsky, M. Asif Khan, and M. S. Shur, "High-temperature performance of AlGaN/GaN HFET's on SiC substrates", IEEE Electron Device Lett., Vol. 18, No. 10, pp. 492-494, October 1997.   DOI
4 O. Aktas, Z. F. Fan, S. N. Mohammad, A. E. Botchkarev, and H. Morkoc, "High-temperature characteristics of AlGaN/GaN modulation doped field-effect transistors", Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 69, No. 25, pp. 3872-3874, December 1996.   DOI
5 L. Lv, X. Ma, J. Zhang, Z. Bi, L. Liu, H. Shan, and Y. Hao, "Proton Irradiation Effects on AlGaN/AlN/GaN Heterojunctions", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 300-305, February 2015.   DOI
6 J. Mararo, G. Nicolas, D. M. Nhut, S. Forestier, S. Rochette, O. Vendier, D. Langrez, J. Cazaux, and M. Feudale, "GaN for space application: Almost ready for flight", Int. J. Microw. Wirel., Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 121-133, April 2010.   DOI
7 W. Choi, H. Ryu, N. Jeon, M. Lee, H.-Y. Cha, and K.-S. Seo, "Improvement of Vth Instability in Normally-Off GaN MIS-HEMTs Employing PEALD-SiNX as an Interfacial Layer", IEEE Electron Device Lett., Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 30-32, January 2014.   DOI
8 B. D. Weaver, T. J. Anderson, A. D. Koehler, J. D. Greenlee, J. K. Hite, D. I. Shahin, F. J. Kub, and K. D. Hobart, "On the radiation tolerance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs", J. Solid-State Sci. Technol., Vol. 5, No. 7, pp. Q208-Q212, June 2016.   DOI
9 J. Chen, Y. S. Puzyrev, R. Jiang, E. X. Zhang, M. W. McCurdy, D. M. Fleetwood, R. D. Schrimpf, S. T. Pantelides, A. R. Arehart, S. A. Ringel, P. Saunier, and C. Lee, "Effects of applied bias and high field stress on the radiation response of GaN/AlGaN HEMTs", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 62, No. 6, pp. 2423-2430, December 2015.   DOI
10 O. Ambacher, B. Foutz, J. Smart, J. R. Shealy, N. G. Weimann, K. Chu, M. Murphy, A. J. Sierakowski, W. J. Schaff, L. F. Eastman, R. Dimitrov, A. Mitchell, and M. Stutzmann, "Two dimensional electron gases induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization in undopoed and doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 334-344, January 2000.
11 Y. Uemoto, M. Hikita, H. Ueno, H. Matsuo, H. Ishida, M. Yanagihara, T. Ueda, T. Tanaka, and D. Ueda, "Gate Injection Transistor (GIT)-A normally-off AlGaN/GaN Power Transistor Using Conductivity Modulation", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, Vol. 54, No. 12, pp. 3393-3399, December 2007.   DOI
12 I. P. Smorchkova, C. R. Elsass, J. P. Ibbetson, R. Vetury, B. Heying, P. Fini, E. Haus, S. P. DenBaars, J. S. Speck, and U. K. Mishra, "Polarization-induced charge and electron mobility in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy", J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 86, No. 8, pp. 4520-4526, October 1999.   DOI
13 B. R. Park, J.-G. Lee, W. Choi, H. Kim, K.-S. Seo, and H.-Y. Cha, "High-quality ICPCVD $SiO_2$ for normally-off AlGaN/GaN-on-Si recessed MOSHFETs", IEEE Electron Device Lett., Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 354-356, March 2013.   DOI
14 K. J. Chen, L. Yuan, M. J. Wang, H. Chen, S. Huang, Q. Zhou, C. Zhou, B. K. Li, and J. N. Wang, "Physics of fluorine plasma ion implantation for GaN normally-off HEMT technology", in Proc. IEEE Int. Electron Devices Meeting(IEDM), pp. 19.4.1-19.4.4, December 2011.
15 X. Huang, Z. Liu, Q. Li, and F. C. Lee, "Evaluation and application of 600 V GaN HEMT in cascade structure", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., Vol. 29, No. 5, pp. 2453-2461, May 2014.   DOI
16 http://www.srim.org/
17 B. Luo, J. Kim, F. Ren, J. K. Gillespie, R. C. Fitch, J. Sewell, R. Dettmer, G. D. Via, A. Crespo, T. J. Jenkins, B. P. Gila, A. H. Onstine, K. K. Allums, C. R. Abernathy, S. J. Pearton, R. Dwivedi, T. N. Fogarty, and R. Wilkins, "Electrical characteristics of proton-irradiated $Sc_2O_3$ passivated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors", Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 82, No. 9, pp. 1428-1430, March 2003.   DOI
18 L. Liu, C.-F. Lo, Y. Xi, Y. Wang, F. Ren, S. J. Pearton, H.-Y. Kim, J. Kim, R. C. Fitch, D. E. Walker Jr., K. D. Chabak, J. K. Gillespie, S. E. Tetlak, G. D. Via, A. Crespo, I. I. Kravchenko, "Dependence on proton energy of degradation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B., Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 022201-1-022201-7, January 2013.   DOI
19 B. D. White, M. Bataiev, S. H. Goss, X. Hu, A. Karmarkar, D. M. Fleetwood, R. D. Schrimpf, W. J. Schaff, and L. J. Brillson, "Electrical, spectral, and chemical properties of 1.8 MeV proton irradiated AlGaN/GaN HEMT structures as a function of proton fluence", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 50, No. 6, pp. 1934-1941, December 2003.   DOI
20 J. R. Srour, C. J. Marshall, and P. W. Marshall, "Review of Displacement Damage Effects in Silicon Devices", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 653-670, June 2003.   DOI
21 G. P. Summers, B. A. Burke, M. A. Xapsos, C. J. Dale, P. W. Marshall, and E. L. Petersen, "Displacement Damage In GaAs Structures", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 1221-1226, December 1988.   DOI
22 B. D. Weaver, P. A. Martin, J. B. Boos, and C. D. Cress, "Displacement damage effects in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors", IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., Vol. 59, No. 6, pp. 3077-3080, December 2012.   DOI
23 J. L. Autran, D. Munteanu, P. Roche, G. Gasiot, S. Martinie, S. Uznanski, S. Sauze, S. Semikh, E. Yakushev, S. Rozov, P. Loaiza, G. Warot, and M. Zampaolo, "Soft-errors induced by terrestrial neutrons and natural alpha-particle emitters in advanced memory circuit at ground level", Microelectron. Reliab., Vol. 50, No. 9-11, pp. 1822-1831, September-November 2010.   DOI
24 J. E. Ayers, "The measurement of threading dislocation densities in semiconductor crystals by X-ray diffraction", J. Crystal Growth, Vol. 135, No. 1-2, pp. 71-77, January 1994.   DOI
25 R. Takasu, Y. Tosaka, H. Hukuda, and Y. Kataoka, "A Novel Method for Accurately Estimating Alpha-Induced Soft Error Rates", in Proc. IEEE Int. Reliability Physics Symposium(IRPS), pp. 230-233, April 2005.