Reliability of Gallium Nitride microwave transistors

Zanoni, Enrico; Meneghesso, Gaudenzio; Meneghini, Matteo; Stocco, Antonio; Dalcanale, Stefano; Rampazzo, F.; Santi, Carlo De; Rossetto, Isabella

doi:10.1109/mikon.2016.7492013

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Since the process is influenced by the source-drain leakage, a correct compensation of the buffer conductivity can significantly improve the reliability of the devices, with Fe and C co-doping leading to the best results. [531] The degradation mechanism is field-driven, as suggested by tests on devices with and without field-plates. [532] A RF stress usually induces small variations in the DC performance of state-of-the art devices, mainly a lowering of the saturation current and a decrease in gate leakage, [533] but the generation of defects causes an increase in the dynamic current collapse.…”

Section: Rf Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

GaN-based power devices: Physics, reliability, and perspectives

Meneghini

Santi

Abid

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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298

126

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Over the last decade, gallium nitride has emerged as an excellent material for the fabrication of power devices. Among the semiconductors for which power devices are already available on the market, GaN has the widest energy gap, the largest critical field, the highest saturation velocity, thus representing an excellent material for the fabrication of high speed/high voltage components.The presence of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization allows to create a 2-dimensional electron gas, with high mobility and large channel density, in absence of any doping, thanks to the use of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. This contributes to minimize resistive losses; at the same time, for GaN transistors switching losses are very low, thanks to the small parasitic capacitances and switching charges. Device scaling and monolithic integration enable high frequency operation, with consequent advantages in terms of miniaturization.For high power/high voltage operation, vertical device architectures are being proposed and investigated, and 3-dimensional structuresfin-shaped, trench-structured, nanowire-basedare demonstrating a great potential. Contrary to silicon, GaN is a relatively young material: trapping and degradation processes must be understood and described in detail, with the aim of optimizing device stability and reliability. This tutorial paper describes the physics, technology and reliability of GaN-based power devices: in the first part of the article, starting from a discussion of the main properties of the material, the characteristics of lateral and vertical GaN transistors are discussed in detail, to provide guidance in this complex and interesting field. The second part of the paper focuses on trapping and reliability aspects: the physical origin of traps in GaN, and the main degradation mechanisms are discussed in detail. The wide set of referenced papers and the insight on the most relevant aspects gives the reader a comprehensive overview on present and next-generation GaN electronics. IntroductionOver the past decade, gallium nitride has emerged as an excellent material for the fabrication of power semiconductor devices. Thanks to the unique properties of GaN, diodes and transistors based on this material have excellent performance, compared to their silicon counterparts, and are expected to find wide application in the next-generation power converters. Owing to the flexibility and the energy efficiency of GaN-based power converters, the interest towards this technology is rapidly growing: the aim of this tutorial is to review the most relevant physical properties, the operating principles, the fabrication parameters, and the stability/reliability issues of GaN-based power transistors. For introductory purposes, we start summarizing the physical reasons why GaN transistors achieve a much better performance than the corresponding silicon devices, to help the reader understanding the unique advantages of this technology.The properties of GaN devices allow the fabrication of high-efficiency (near or above 99 %)...

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Section: Rf Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

GaN-based power devices: Physics, reliability, and perspectives

Meneghini

Santi

Abid

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

Self Cite

298

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…These hot electrons gain enough energy to escape the channel. On the one hand, they can be trapped in the trapping centers as mentioned above [33]. On the other hand, new defects are generated under the gate or in the gate-drain access area, which reduces the output current and make the threshold voltage is drifts forward, as shown in Fig.…”

Section: F Mechanism Analysis Of Burnout Behaviors Of Gan Hemtmentioning

confidence: 99%

RF Overdrive Burnout Behavior and Mechanism Analysis of GaN HEMTs Based on High Speed Camera

Liu

Chen

et al. 2023

IEEE J. Electron Devices Soc.

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In this work, a new method for failure analysis of electronic components, high speed camera, is used to investigate burnout failure location of GaN HEMTs under RF overdrive stress. Based on the high speed camera system and the RF test system, we can filter out most of the burn flashes, and clearly locate the weak parts of devices. To further explain the burnout mechanism, a long-term (100 h) RF overdrive stress experiment was carried out and the significant degradation was observed. The drain-source current decreases and the threshold voltage drifts forward. These phenomena show that the degradation of RF overdrive stress is based on hot electron effect (HEE), which is related to the electric field. Besides, Electroluminescence (EL) tests are used and the non-uniform but strong luminescence characteristics of the gate were found, which indicates the strong electric field is the main cause of burnout. We also explore the correlation between burnout and ambient temperature. It was found that the influence of ambient temperature on the burnout was limited. At last, a TCAD simulation is carried out to confirm the temperature and electric field distribution in the device when burnout. It can be found that the electric field inside the device exceeded the breakdown electric field of GaN, which further proves that the burnout caused by RF overdrive is mainly due to electric field rather than temperature.

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“…Still higher RF power could be reached by the amplifier, in Figure 9, using the GaN technology, now easily available from many foundries [33][34][35][36]. Reliability for GaN is today a well assessed process [37][38][39], also considering particular designs in temperature [40]. GaN MMIC HPAs capable of 10 W of RF power in the Ka-band are today available from some MMIC foundries, and the complete HPA, after replacing the GaAs MMIC with GaN counterparts, is expected to give an RF output power of 450 W.…”

Section: Power Handling Capability Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full-Band Oversized Turnstile-Based Waveguide Four-Way Power Divider/Combiner for High-Power Applications

et al. 2019

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Very high-power and high-efficiency microwave applications require waveguide structures to combine/divide the power from/to a variable number of high-power solid-state devices. In the literature, among the different waveguide configurations, those capable of providing the maximum output power show a limited relative bandwidth. To overcome this limitation, in this paper a full-band (40%) waveguide power divider/combiner specifically designed for high-power applications (up to several kW) is presented. The proposed structure uses an evolved turnstile junction with a standard rectangular waveguide common port, rotated 45°, with respect to its central axis, to divide/combine the signal to/from the four output/input rectangular ports. The inclusion of an oversized central cavity together with circular and rectangular waveguide impedance transformers at the common port allows the achievement of a full-band operation with excellent electrical performance, while maintaining a very simple and compact configuration. Only two layers of metal are required for the physical implementation of this structure in platelet configuration. A prototype has been designed covering the full Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz), showing an excellent measured performance with around 30 dB of return loss, 0.18 dB of insertion loss, and less than 1.5° of phase imbalance.

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Reliability of Gallium Nitride microwave transistors

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

GaN-based power devices: Physics, reliability, and perspectives

GaN-based power devices: Physics, reliability, and perspectives

RF Overdrive Burnout Behavior and Mechanism Analysis of GaN HEMTs Based on High Speed Camera

Full-Band Oversized Turnstile-Based Waveguide Four-Way Power Divider/Combiner for High-Power Applications

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