Abstract
This study investigated the combined effects of proton irradiation and surface pre-treatment on the current characteristics of Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based metal-insulator-semiconductor high-electron-mobility-transistors (MIS-HEMTs) to evaluate the radiation hardness involved with the Silicon Nitride (SiN) passivation/GaN cap interface. The impact of proton irradiation on the static and dynamic current characteristics of devices with and without pre-treatment were analyzed with 5 MeV proton irradiation. In terms of transfer characteristics before and after the proton irradiation, the drain current of the devices without and with pre-treatment were reduced by an increase in sheet and contact resistances after the proton irradiation. In contrast with the static current characteristics, the gate-lag characteristics of the device with pre-treatment were significantly degenerated. In the device with pre-treatment, the hydrogen passivation for surface states of the GaN cap was formed by the pre-treatment and SiN deposition processes. Since the hydrogen passivation was removed by the proton irradiation, the newly created vacancies resulted in the degeneration of gate-lag characteristics. After nine months in an ambient atmosphere, the gate-lag characteristics of the device with pre-treatment were recovered because of the hydrogen recombination. These results demonstrated that the radiation hardness of MIS-HEMTs was affected by the SiN/GaN interface quality.
Highlights
Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based devices have received attention for high-frequency and high-power applications due to their outstanding characteristics, such as low on-resistance (Ron ) and high speed, which can be realized by two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), formed by a AlGaN/GaN heterostructure [1,2,3]
These results indicated that the Silicon Nitride (SiN)/GaN interface was affected by the proton irradiation
Acteristics of all the devices were hardly changed by the drain bias stress condition
Summary
Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based devices have received attention for high-frequency and high-power applications due to their outstanding characteristics, such as low on-resistance (Ron ) and high speed, which can be realized by two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), formed by a AlGaN/GaN heterostructure [1,2,3]. In SiN-passivated devices, the pre-treatment plasma [17] to enhance SiN/(Al)GaN interface quality because the interface quality affects process is based on Tetramethylammonium(TMAH) [14], NH3 [15], H2 SO4 [16] solutions, device performance and reliability. The current collapse characteristics of the AlGaN/GaN and N2 plasma [17] to enhance SiN/(Al)GaN interface quality because the interface quality heterojunction‐based devices can be especially degraded by the surface state of the affects device performance and reliability. To investigate the relationship between use the TMAH-based pre-treatment process, which was performed to improve the the interface conditions and irradiation damage, we analyzed the impact of proton irradiation passivation/GaN cap interface quality. We collapse characteristics afterphenomenon nine months.of the devices by re-measuring current collapse verified the recovery characteristics after nine months
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