Failure Behavior and Mechanism of p-GaN Gate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs in the Third Quadrant Under Repetitive Surge Current Stress
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices(2023)
Abstract
In this article, the failure behavior and mechanism of p-GaN gate AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) in the third quadrant under repetitive surge current stress are investigated. Repetitive stress tests with different surge current peak values I-peak are carried out. At high I-peak , as the stress cycle increases, the evolution of the peak value of surge voltage induced by surge current shows an obvious turning phenomenon and a significant increasing trend. When the surge voltage reaches a certain value, the gate-to-source breakdown occurs, and then, the device is burned out. We propose that the degradation of the third-quadrant conduction characteristics results in the change of surge voltage, and excessive electric field intensity induced by high gate-to-drain voltage V(GD )causes the gate Schottky junction breakdown. It is confirmed by further experiments, electrical performance characterization, and simulation. Inconsistent degradation of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel in various regions causes the aforementioned turning phenomenon. As the stress cycle increases, the channel degradation in the gate-to-source/drain access region occupies a dominant position. In this situation, the V-GD increases continuously, which will enhance the tunneling effect at the Schottky junction, until breakdown occurs. Besides, the device shows better surge current reliability at higher gate-to-source voltage. These results provide important insights into the improvement of GaN HEMTs reliability.
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Key words
Degradation and failure behavior,failure mechanism,p-GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs),surge current,surge voltage
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