Low power fluorine plasma effects on electrical reliability of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor**Projects supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61334002) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61604114, 61404097, and 61504099).

Abstract

The new electrical degradation phenomenon of the AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) treated by low power fluorine plasma is discovered. The saturated current, on-resistance, threshold voltage, gate leakage and breakdown voltage show that each experiences a significant change in a short time stress, and then keeps unchangeable. The migration phenomenon of fluorine ions is further validated by the electron redistribution and breakdown voltage enhancement after off-state stress. These results suggest that the low power fluorine implant ion stays in an unstable state. It causes the electrical properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMT to present early degradation. A new migration and degradation mechanism of the low power fluorine implant ion under the off-stress electrical stress is proposed. The low power fluorine ions would drift at the beginning of the off-state stress, and then accumulate between gate and drain nearby the gate side. Due to the strong electronegativity of fluorine, the accumulation of the front fluorine ions would prevent the subsequent fluorine ions from drifting, thereby alleviating further the degradation of AlGaN/GaN HEMT electrical properties.