Experimental and Simulation Study on the Electrical Characteristics of Proton-irradiated AlGaN/GaN HEMT

• Published in: Journal of semiconductor technology and science Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 21 - 29
• Main Authors: Jeon, So-Ra, Yoon, Young Jun, Lee, Sang-Ho, Park, Jin, Kim, Min-Seok, Bae, Seung-Ji, Hong, JeongWoo, Koh, Won-Suk, Yun, Gang San, Kang, In-Man
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 대한전자공학회 01.02.2025
• Subjects: 전기공학
• ISSN: 2233-4866; 1598-1657; 1598-1657; 2233-4866
• DOI: 10.5573/JSTS.2025.25.1.21

In this study, we conducted an irradiation experiment using protons with 5 MeV energy and a fluence of 5 ×1013 cm−2 to analyze the effects on AlGaN/GaN high electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). After proton irradiation, the on-resistance (Ron) value increased by 57%, the on-state current (Ion) decreased by 26.78%, and the off-state current (Ioff) increased by 89.63%. Despite these changes in Ion and Ioff, there was no significant change in the threshold voltage (Vt). This indicates that the two-dimensional electronic gas (2DEG) density, which determines Vt did not sustain significant damage. The degradation in device characteristics was attributed to other factors, which were analyzed through a resistance-based equation. Additionally, we performed simulation fitting to complete a quantitative cause analysis. We believe that our findings will contribute to preliminary verification research for high-reliability experiments, such as space and aviation semiconductors. KCI Citation Count: 0