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Radiation damage in electronic devices is known to be influenced by physics, design, and materials system. Here, we report the effects of biasing state (such as ON and OFF) and pre-existing damage in GaN high electron mobility transistors exposed to γ radiation. Controlled and accelerated DC biasing was used to prestress the devices, which showed significant degradation in device characteristics compared to pristine devices under ON and OFF states after γ irradiation. The experiment is performed in situ for the ON-state to investigate transient effects during irradiation until the total dose reaches 10 Mrad. It shows that threshold voltage, maximum transconductance, and leakage current initially decrease with dosage but slowly converge to a steady value at higher doses. After 10 Mrad irradiation, the OFF-state device demonstrates larger RON and one order of magnitude increased leakage current compared to the ON-state irradiated device. The micro-Raman study also confirms that the ON-state operation shows more radiation hardness than OFF and prestressed devices. Prestressed devices generate the highest threshold voltage shift from −2.85 to −2.49 V and two orders of magnitude higher leakage current with decreased saturation current after irradiation. These findings indicate that high electric fields during stressing can generate defects by modifying strain distribution, and higher defect density can not only create more charges during irradiation but also accelerate the diffusion process from the ionizing track to the nearest collector and consequently degrade device performances.
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Localized strain relaxation effect on gamma irradiated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors
Strain localization in microelectronic devices commonly arises from device geometry, materials, and fabrication processing. In this study, we controllably relieve the local strain field of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs by milling micro-trenches underneath the channel and compare the device performance as a function of the relieved strain as well as radiation dosage. Micro-Raman results suggest that the trenches locally relax the strain in device layers, decreasing the 2DEG density and mobility. Intriguingly, such strain relaxation is shown to minimize the radiation damage, measured after 10 Mrads of 60Co-gamma exposure. For example, a 6-trench device showed only ∼8% and ∼6% decrease in saturation drain current and maximum transconductance, respectively, compared to corresponding values of ∼15% and ∼30% in a no-trench device. Negative and positive threshold voltage shifts are observed in 6-trench and no-trench devices, respectively, after gamma radiation. We hypothesize that the extent of gamma radiation damage depends on the strain level in the devices. Thus, even though milling a trench decreases 2DEG mobility, such decrease under gamma radiation is far less in a 6-trench device (∼1.5%) compared to a no-trench device (∼20%) with higher built-in strain.
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- PAR ID:
- 10408324
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Institute of Physics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Volume:
- 121
- Issue:
- 23
- ISSN:
- 0003-6951
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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