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Phys. Status Solidi C 13, No. 5–6, 350–353 (2016) / DOI 10.1002/pssc.201510155
www.pss-c.com
current topics in solid state physics
Analysis of breakdown characteristics
in source field-plate AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs
Hiraku Onodera, Hideyuki Hanawa, and Kazushige Horio*
Faculty of Systems Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, 307 Fukasaku, Minuma-ku, Saitama 337-8570, Japan
Two-dimensional analysis of off-state breakdown charac- its optimum length should exist. It is also shown that the
teristics of source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs is per- breakdown voltage of the source field-plate structure is a
formed by considering a deep donor and a deep acceptor little lower than that of the gate field-plate structure when
in a buffer layer. It is shown that the introduction of field the field-plate length is short, because the electric field at
plate is effective in improving the breakdown voltage, the drain edge of the gate becomes higher.
but it can decrease with the field-plate length, and hence
1 Introduction Recently, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are 2 Physical models Figure1 shows device structures
receiving great attention because of their applications to analyzed here. Part (a) shows a source field-plate structure,
high-frequency power devices and high-power switching
devices [1, 2]. It is well known that the introduction of
field plate (like Fig. 1) enhances the power performance of
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs [3-5]. This is because the introduc-
tion of field plate reduces the current collapse [6-8], and
increases the off-state breakdown voltage [9-11]. Usually,
the breakdown voltage increases with increasing the field-
plate length [9], because the electric field at the drain edge
of the gate decreases. Recently, it is also shown that the in-
troduction of high-k passivation layer could increase the
breakdown voltage of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs [12], because (a)
the electric field at the drain edge of the gate is reduced.
About the breakdown characteristics of field-plate struc-
tures, the gate-field structure has mainly been studied, and
few or no breakdown characteristics of source field-plate
structure have been reported.
In this work, we have made two-dimensional analysis
of source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with a short gate
length (0.3 μm) and a relatively short gate-to-drain dis-
tance (1.5 μm), and found that the breakdown voltage can
decrease with the field-plate length and its optimum value
exists. We also compare the breakdown voltages between (b)
source and gate field-plate structures. Figure 1 Device structures analyzed in this study. (a) Source
field-plate structure, (b) gate field-plate structure.
solidi
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352 H. Onodera et al.: Breakdown characteristics in source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
(b)
Figure 3 Comparison of electric field profiles along the hetero-
junction interface. NDA = 1017 cm-3 and VG = − 8 V. (a) Without Figure 5 Off-state breakdown voltage Vbr as a function of field-
field plate (LFP = 0), (b) with field plate (LFP = 1 μm). plate length LFP for the two field-plate structures. LGD = 1.5 μm.
VG = − 8 V.
the breakdown around VD = 260 V. This phenomenon that Figure 5 shows a comparison of breakdown voltage as
the off-state breakdown voltage becomes small with in- a function of the field-plate length LFP between the source
creasing the field plate length is also experimentally re- and gate field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. It is seen that the
ported recently in the gate field-plate structure [19]. breakdown voltage for the source field-plate structure is
Figure 4 shows a comparison of electric field profiles lower in the region where LFP is short. This is due to the
along the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction interface for differ- higher electric field at the drain edge of the gate for this
ent LFP. Here, LGD = 1.5 μm and VD = 260 V. For shorter structure, because in this structure the field-plate voltage is
LFP, the electric field at the drain edge of the gate is higher fixed to 0 V and the gate voltage is − 8 V whereas in the
(but not so high to reach breakdown), and the electric field gate field-plate structure the field-plate voltage and the
between the field-plate edge and the drain becomes weaker gate voltage are the same (− 8 V). Finally, from Fig. 5, it
because the distance between the field-plate edge and the should be mentioned that there is an optimum length of LFP
drain is longer, and hence the breakdown voltage should be to achieve a high breakdown voltage both in the source and
higher. Therefore, the breakdown voltage decreases when gate field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
the field-plate length LFP becomes long.
4 Conclusion A two-dimensional analysis of off- [5] Y. Hao, L. Yang, X. Ma, J. Ma, M. Cao, C. Pan, C. Wang,
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30, 436 (2009).
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