Specific features of proton interaction with transistor structures having a 2D AlGaN/GaN channel

Abstract

It has been shown that the interaction of 1 MeV protons at doses of (0.5–2) × 1014 cm–2 with transistor structures having a 2D AlGaN/GaN channel (AlGaN/GaN HEMTs) is accompanied not only by the generation of point defects, but also by the formation of local regions with a disordered nanomaterial. The degree of disorder of the nanomaterial was evaluated by multifractal analysis methods. An increase in the degree of disorder of the nanomaterial, manifested the most clearly at a proton dose of 2 × 1014 cm–2, leads to several-fold changes in the mobility and electron density in the 2D channel of HEMT structures. In this case, the transistors show a decrease in the source–drain current and an order-of-magnitude increase in the gate leakage current. In HEMT structures having an enhanced disorder of the nanomaterial prior to exposure to protons, proton irradiation results in suppression of the 2D conductivity in the channel and failure of the transistors, even at a dose of 1 × 1014 cm–2.