Novel Double Deck Gate Field Plate Structure on a Normally-Off AlGaN/GaN HEMT- An Extensive Analysis

Abstract

A novel double deck gate field plate structure on a normally-off AlGaN/GaN HEMT is proposed and compared with the conventional no field plate structure. Several passivation materials with relative permittivity (εr) ranging from 3.9 to 22 is taken into consideration to study the breakdown and DC characteristics. The implementation of field plate along with a higher εr material helps in improving breakdown voltage (VBr) as they both decrease the electric field at the gate’s drain edge. Aiming device optimization several field plate configurations are studied including tri field plate structure, dual field plate structures and single gate FP structure. Extensive analysis in these structures are done with different lengths of the field plates and distance between source and drain. Distance between source and drain (LSD) is varied from 8.4 to 13.4 μm, source FP lengths (LS_FP) varies from 1 to 7 μm, gate FP lengths (LG_FP) varies from 0.9 to 2.3 μm and drain FP lengths (LD_FP) varies from 0.2 to 4.9 μm. In all scenarios with varying LSD, VBr rises with increasing LSD. For source, gate and drain FP lengths variation, VBr decreases as it gets longer because the electric field becomes very high. As the distance between the FP edge and the drain becomes narrower with increase in FP lengths, the breakdown occurs at lower voltage. At LSD 13.4 μm, this novel double deck gate FP structure with conventional drain field plate structure gives highest VBr of 1660 V and a small Ron of 2.39 Ω mm as compared to other structures. It also outperforms the other three structures in FT (9.84 GHz) at this particular LSD. Analysis of the simulated structures shows that the union of gate-drain field plate boosts the VBr while decreasing the Ron, resulting in improved electrical performance and a wider application range.