Fast Unveiling of T _max in GaN HEMT Devices via the Electrical Measurement-Assisted Two-Heat Source Model

Abstract

Gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) devices, which have wide application potential from power amplifiers to satellite, need to be thoroughly examined in terms of reliability in order to benefit the superior intrinsic properties of the device. The most critical parameter in the device reliability is the hotspot, or T max , which occurs somewhere on the subsurface and along the channel of the GaN HEMT, which is optically inaccessible due to optical path disability. Therefore, the T max value is underestimated in optical measurements, such as the thermographic IR and Raman methods. With 3-D electrothermal simulations, T max is obtained close to reality, but it requires a huge computation load and the complex modeling of semiconductor device physics. In 2-D or 3-D thermal simulations that do not use electrothermal simulations, since the self-heating is mostly modeled with a single heat source, neither the correct T max value is obtained nor the effect of bias conditions is considered. To address the aforementioned shortcomings, a hybrid method is demonstrated, which exploits the electrical measurements of GaN HEMT, which RF and reliability engineers often and easily do. It is demonstrated that T max can be determined quickly and close to the electrothermal simulations in a GaN HEMT Manuscript

Understanding of multiway heat extraction using peripheral diamond in an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor by electrothermal simulations

“…Furthermore, bias-dependent variation in the Joule heating region cannot be replicated by 3D FEM thermal simulations alone [5]. This problem can be tackled by a hybrid simulation strategy using 2D TCAD and 3D FEM modeling [34][35][36]. However, the primary motivation of this report is to analyze the trends for multiway heat extraction, therefore focusing more on the qualitative aspects of electrothermal analysis and leveraging the benefits of a 2D TCAD simulator.…”

Unveiling Tmax Inside GaN HEMT Based X-Band Low-Noise Amplifier by Correlating Thermal Simulations and IR Thermographic Measurements

“…The drawback is that they underestimate peak channel temperature due to averaging over the active device region [25], [26]. Optical measurements such as micro-Raman and infrared (IR) thermography [27]- [30] provide information on the surface temperature [18], [19], [31], [32], not the hotspots inside 2DEG buried below the gate of each HEMT. Moreover, spatial resolution limits optical measurements due to diffraction [33].…”