Improvement and Reduction of Self-Heating Effect in AlGaN/GaN HEMT Devices

Abstract

GaN is one of the third-generation broadband semiconductor materials developed rapidly in recent years, and Algan/GanHEMT has a broad application prospect in the fields of high temperature, high power, high frequency and radiation resistance, etc. In recent years, gallium nitride based high electron mobility transistors have been widely used in emerging industries, such as 5G technology, new energy vehicles, unmanned aircraft and other fields, due to their high power and high voltage resistance. However, due to the high power density of HEMT devices, the self-heating effect will lead to a significant increase in the junction temperature of the device, which will seriously affect the performance, reliability, and lifetime of the device. In this paper, the temperature characteristics of GaN high electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) are studied, and the effect of self-heating effect on GaN HEMT devices is analyzed. In order to reduce the device temperature and improve the reliability of the device, a new device structure is proposed in this paper. The new structure replaces the conventional silicon and Si3N4 with highly thermally conductive diamond and SiC as the substrate and passivation layer of the device, which facilitates the heat dissipation from the substrate and passivation layer. Also, the new structure employs a hybrid barrier layer and field plate. Simulation results show that the new structure has about 30% lower temperature peak, 47% higher output current, 28% higher transconductivity, and up to 18.22% higher current collapse rate compared to the conventional structure.