Short term reliability and robustness of ultra-thin barrier, 110 nm-gate AlN/GaN HEMTs

Zhan Gao (1) , Matteo Meneghini (1) , Kathia Harrouche (2) , Riad Kabouche (2) , Francesca Chiocchetta (1) , Etienne Okada (2, 3) , Fabiana Rampazzo (1) , Carlo de Santi (1) , F Medjdoub (2, 4) , Gaudenzio Meneghesso (1) , Enrico Zanoni (1)

1 Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
2 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
3 PCMP - IEMN - Plateforme de Caractérisation Multi-Physiques - IEMN
4 WIND - IEMN - WIde baNd gap materials and Devices - IEMN

Short-term reliability and robustness of 110 nm AlN/GaN HEMTs has been evaluated by means of off-state, semi-on state and on-state step stress tests on devices having different gate-drain distance, LGD. While breakdown voltages and critical voltages scale almost linearly with LGD, failure mode remains almost unchanged in all tested devices, and consists in an increase of gate leakage, accompanied by a positive shift of threshold voltage. In off-state, electroluminescence images detect the presence of localized leakage paths which may act as preferential paths for electron trapping. Degradation is therefore preliminary attributed to hot-electron trapping, enhanced by electric fields.

Mots clés: AlN/GaN HEMTs; reliability; stress; breakdown mechanism; electric field; radio frequency

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Zhan Gao, Matteo Meneghini, Kathia Harrouche, Riad Kabouche, Francesca Chiocchetta, et al.. Short term reliability and robustness of ultra-thin barrier, 110 nm-gate AlN/GaN HEMTs. Microelectronics Reliability, 2021, 123, pp.114199. ⟨10.1016/j.microrel.2021.114199⟩. ⟨hal-03287632⟩