Effect of gate dielectrics on characteristics of high-energy proton-irradiated AlGaN/GaN MISHEMTs

Effect of Double Insulators on the Performance Improvement of 3 MeV Proton-Irradiated AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs

“…Besides, displacement damage and defects caused by proton radiation may trap electrons, further leading to a positive shift in the threshold voltage. 6 For the MIS-HEMTs with single Al 2 O 3 layer, proton radiation may induce more defects and traps by reacting with the negative effective charges exist in Al 2 O 3 , 6,20 depleting electrons in the channel and leading to a positive shift of the threshold voltage. Besides, the material quality difference induced during fabrication process and the thickness difference between Al 2 O 3 and SiN x accounts for the larger shift in the MIS-HEMTs with single Al 2 O 3 layer than that of in the MIS-HEMTs with single SiN x layer to a certain degree.…”

“…4,5 The metal-insulatorsemiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS HEMTs) with a thin dielectric layer deposited on barrier or capping layer were investigated to enhance the device performance by suppressing current collapse and reducing gate leakage. 6 However, proton irradiation may cause problems such as degradation of drain saturation current and a slow-down of hard switching response time in MIS-HEMTs. 7 Proton irradiation effect on the MIS-HEMTs with different insulators such as Al 2 O 3 , SiN x , Sc 2 O 3 , MgO, NbAlO, Gd 2 O 3 8-10 have already been investigated, while the studies on the proton radiation effect on MIS-HEMTs with double insulators have rarely been reported.…”

“…SiN x shows better passivation effect than Al 2 O 3 , however, it can produce much higher proton irradiation-induced effective charge density after radiation. 6…”

Effects of Proton Irradiation on the Current Characteristics of SiN-Passivated AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs Using a TMAH-Based Surface Pre-Treatment

“…The V th was defined as the V G intercept of the linear extrapolation of the I D at the point of peak g m ( g m_max ) [ 24 ], and the V th of all the devices were extracted at the I D - V G at a low V D of 0.1 V. The variation rate of the V th values before and after the proton irradiation (Δ V th ) of the device without the pre-treatment was about +0.39 V. This is consistent with the results reported in Refs. [ 8 , 9 ]. The proton irradiation induced reduction in electron density within the 2DEG channel due to the displacement damage [ 25 , 26 ].…”

“…Electronics used in harsh space environments must be resistant to damage or malfunctions caused by ionizing radiation. In order to evaluate radiation hardness, radiation irradiation effects on the device properties have been explored in MIS-HEMTs with various gate dielectric layers, namely, SiN/Al 2 O 3 [ 7 , 8 ], SiN [ 9 , 10 ], Gd 2 O 3 [ 11 ], MgO/Sc 2 O 3 [ 12 ], and poly-AlN/SiN [ 13 ]. However, these researches have focused on the impact of dielectric on radiation resistance.…”