Part II: Proposals to Independently Engineer Donor and Acceptor Trap Concentrations in GaN Buffer for Ultrahigh Breakdown AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Abstract

In part I of this paper, we developed physical insights into the role and impact of acceptor and donor traps—resulting from C-doping in GaN buffer—on avalanche breakdown in AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices. It was found that the donor traps are mandatory to explain the breakdown voltage improvement. In this paper, silicon doping is proposed and explored as an alternative to independently engineer donor trap concentration and profile. Keeping in mind the acceptor and donor trap relative concentration requirement for achieving higher breakdown buffer, as depicted in part I of this paper, silicon & carbon codoping of GaN buffer is proposed and explored in this paper. The proposed improvement in breakdown voltage is supported by physical insight into the avalanche phenomena and role of acceptor/donor traps. GaN buffer design parameters and their impact on breakdown voltage as well as leakage current are presented. Finally, a modified Si-doping profile in the GaN buffer is proposed to lower the C-doping concentration near GaN channel to mitigate the adverse effects of acceptor traps in GaN buffer.