Spatial distribution of structural degradation under high-power stress in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

• Main Authors: Li, Libing (Contributor), Joh, Jungwoo (Contributor), Thompson, Carl V. (Contributor), del Alamo, Jesus A. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Microsystems Technology Laboratories (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics (AIP), 2014-04-11T18:32:58Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The two-dimensional spatial distribution of structural degradation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors was investigated under high-power electrical stressing using atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that pits form on the surface of the GaN cap layer at the edges of the gate fingers in the middle of the device. The average pit area and density increase gradually from the edge to the center of the fingers and are more common along inner fingers than fingers. It was also found that pit formation and growth are thermally activated.
United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARL Contract W911QX-05-C-0087)
United States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Grant N00014-08-1-0655)