S-band pulsed-RF operating life test on AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices for radar application

Moultif, Niemat; Latry, Olivier; Ndiaye, Mamadou Lamine; Neveu, T.; Joubert, Eric; Moreau, Christian; Goupy, J-F.

doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2019.113434

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…[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. [534] A negative [535] or positive [536] shift in threshold voltage is also observed sometimes, due to the presence of traps in the cap and barrier layer. [535] The important conclusion comes from the comparison between devices stressed in DC and RF conditions, showing different degradation modes and a stronger degradation in the RF case.…”

Section: Rf Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Meneghini

Santi

Abid

et al. 2021

Journal of Applied Physics

345

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

345

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The results of the numerical simulations for the electrothermal model are presented in Figure 2, and we have compared them with the experimental results. The experimental method used is the Raman micro-spectrometry method [2,25]. In the same figure, we can observe the increase in operating temperature according to the linear dissipated power.…”

Section: Electro-thermal Modelingmentioning

confidence: 94%

Multi-objective optimization of the high electron mobility transistor

Amar,

El Maani,

Radi

et al. 2023

Int. J. Simul. Multidisci. Des. Optim.

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In this paper, we present a new approach to improve the thermo-mechanical performance of the HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) technology. This study aims to solve two optimization problems. The first one is the optimization of the thermal behavior of the HEMT, through the optimization of its maximum operating temperature which influences the electrical characteristics such as electron mobility, and also influences the mechanical behavior of its structure. While the second problem will be the optimization of the mechanical behavior of the same technology, through the optimization of the stresses distribution that also influence the electrical characteristics and reliability of the HEMT structure. The resolution of these two optimization problems will be done, by the multi-objective optimization approach thanks to numerical tools such as Comsol multiphysics and Matlab software, which allows to solve these two problems simultaneously by taking into consideration the imposed constraints. The results obtained have optimized the thermo-mechanical behavior of the HEMT, which proves the efficiency of this approach to solve complex optimization problems.

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“…(b) Important uncertain thermal properties can be inferred from the optimized input parameters, such as effective conductivities of GaN, substrate, and interface layers. (c) Since the extracted temperature maps and thermal properties pertain to the actual thermal-mechanical state of the device measured at the particular instance in time when the device is experimentally characterized, the method can be used as a diagnostic tool to monitor time varying parameters and observe long-term effects such as aging and degradation [47,48]. These transient device dynamics are particularly important for HEMT devices which experience gradual degradation instead of sudden failure and are largely influenced by thermal loading [49,50] and thermal interactions that are difficult to model in the design stage.…”

Section: Coupled Experimental and Numerical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full thermal characterization of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors on silicon, silicon carbide, and diamond substrates using a reverse modeling approach

Helou¹,

Cui²,

Tadjer

et al. 2020

Semicond. Sci. Technol.

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Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) operate at high power levels and are thus especially thermally-critical devices. Not only do they require innovative thermal management strategies, but can also benefit from advanced experimental thermal characterization, both numerical and experimental, in their design and system integration stages. The thermal numerical analysis of microelectronic devices faces the challenges of complex physics and uncertain thermophysical properties which leads to numerically expensive models that are prone to error. By the use of an innovative reverse modeling approach to mitigate the above challenges, this work presents the full thermal characterization of GaN power devices with different substrates aimed at managing performance-limiting self-heating. The approach develops and optimizes a thermal simulation model to match the numerical results to experimentally-obtained thermal maps of the devices under test. The experimentally-optimized simulation model can then be used to extract full 3D temperature distributions, infer in-situ thermal properties, and provide a numerical platform that can be used to conduct further parametric studies and design iterations. The presented analysis provides a full thermal characterization of different GaN HEMT devices and compares the thermal performance of different substrates on the basis of thermal properties. The extracted properties for HEMTs on Si, SiC, and Diamond substrates are compared and a set of conclusions are presented to guide further developments in GaN HEMT thermal management strategies.

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S-band pulsed-RF operating life test on AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices for radar application

Cited by 10 publications

References 20 publications

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

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

Multi-objective optimization of the high electron mobility transistor

Full thermal characterization of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors on silicon, silicon carbide, and diamond substrates using a reverse modeling approach

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