Abstract
Bulk gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor devices are gaining significant interest in recent years, creating the need for technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation to accurately model and optimize these devices. This paper comprehensively reviews and compares different GaN physical models and model parameters in the literature, and discusses the appropriate selection of these models and parameters for TCAD simulation. 2-D drift-diffusion semi-classical simulation is carried out for 2.6 kV and 3.7 kV bulk GaN vertical PN diodes. The simulated forward current-voltage and reverse breakdown characteristics are in good agreement with the measurement data even over a wide temperature range.
Highlights
Vertical bulk gallium nitride (GaN) power devices, which can circumvent the limitations of the lateral GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) such as the current collapse phenomenon and lack of avalanche energy capability, have recently become a possibility with high-quality free-standing bulk GaN materials being increasingly available with a low defect density (104-106 cm−2).[4,5,6]
Physical models and model parameters pertinent to energy bandgap, incomplete ionization, electron and hole mobility, impact ionization and carrier recombinationgeneration in GaN are reported in the literature
We provide a comprehensive review and comparison of the physical models and associated model parameters for bulk GaN materials in the literature, and discuss the appropriate selection of models and parameters for technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation
Summary
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a highly promising wide bandgap semiconductor material to succeed silicon in high frequency power electronics applications.[1,2,3] While the lateral high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) remains the most popular GaN device type, vertical bulk GaN power devices have considerable interest in recent years.[4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] A GaN HEMT fabricated on a heteroexpitaxial layer on a substrate of sapphire, silicon, or silicon carbide offers potentially low fabrication cost, but currently suffers from high threading dislocation density (∼1010 cm−2) and the associated reliability concerns, owing to the inherent lattice mismatch between the epitaxial film and foreign substrate. The Chynoweth law[36] is accepted as an accurate representation of the avalanche effect in GaN but impact ionization coefficients reported from Monte Carlo simulations[24,25,27] as well as experimental results[36,37] differ from one work to another. Baik et al.[53] reported on modeling of bulk GaN Schottky and PN diodes using drift-diffusion simulations, but the models were not validated against measurement data. We provide a comprehensive review and comparison of the physical models and associated model parameters for bulk GaN materials in the literature, and discuss the appropriate selection of models and parameters for TCAD simulation. The models and model parameters proposed in this work can be used in other TCAD software
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