3. Prior Art
devices for the next-generation high-power microwave applications.
4
Numerical Investigation of Rounded Gate Device
Contents
4.1 Introduction . . . 60 4.2 Numerical Analysis Framework / Physical Model . . . 62 4.3 Results & Discussion . . . 68 4.4 Summary . . . 87
4. Numerical Investigation of Rounded Gate Device
4.1 Introduction
AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) are best known for their supe- riority in operating at elevated voltage and temperature along with outstanding integrity in handling high-frequency signals [34, 81, 97]. GaN being an important member of III–V semi- conductor group finds its application in optoelectronic, high-power and high frequency device technologies [98–100]. This ability of AlGaN/GaN HEMT is primarily due to the large bandgap, high critical electric field and high carrier saturation velocity of the materials involved [101,102].
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are normally-ON devices as 2DEG (2 Dimensional Electron Gas) natu- rally forms at the AlGaN/GaN interface due to polarization [39]. However, a normally-OFF operation is achieved by gate recess [103], fluorine implantation [104], and the inclusion of ad- ditional layer like InGaN, SiNx [105, 106] etc. The performance of these devices are affected by the leakage current [107], which lowers the device breakdown voltage and can lead to its early breakdown [108]. This issue can be addressed by using a thicker buffer layer, which is doped with either Iron (Fe) or Carbon (C) [109–111].
The potential of AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology cannot be realized until reliability aspect is probed and enhanced. As the majority of degradation phenomenon originates in the gate edge of these devices, modifications in the rectangular gate geometry can be one of the al- ternatives to address this issue [112–115]. We postulate that mitigation of electric field at the gate edge can suppress degradation mechanisms. In this work, a detailed analysis for rounded gate AlGaN/GaN HEMT with and without field plate is presented. The reliability aspects are studied by evaluating the electric field profile, leakage current, electron temperature (eTemperature), and capacitance–voltage characteristics (CV). Pei et al. [85] emphasizes that reduction in peak electric field and parasitic capacitance leads to increase reliability of sub-µm AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The proposed research work exhibits the impact of above mentioned factors on the device reliability by varying gate geometry along with simulatenous introduction of field–plates in the device structure. Field plate is usually implemented to scale down electric field in the drain access region. Several configuration are reported in the literature, such as
4.1 Introduction
gate field plate [2, 116–119], source-connected field plate [120–122], and drain-connected field plate [123–126]. Although field plate design exhibits high breakdown voltage due to electric field modulation at the gate, however a negative aspect of lateral/gate connected field plate design is that it increases Miller capacitance. Moreover, lateral scaling is limited in gate connected field configuration [2, 127, 128] as it hinders the ON–state performance of a device [119, 129]. It is worth mentioning that RF performance of the device degrades with scaling down as Miller capacitance dominates in the devices having field plate. Although CV characteristics of GaN- based Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) HEMT (normally-OFF HEMTs) is presented in the literature [130–138], it is also imperative to understand CV characteristics of a normally-ON HEMT for reliability perspectives.
In this work, we primarily discuss key degradation mechanism in a device and introspect into the following approaches to increase the reliability of AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices.
• We propose alteration in gate geometry of HEMT (so called rounded gate device). To examine benefits of this approach in the performance of a device, device characteristics, namely, current-voltage (I–V) characteristics (transfer characteristics and output charac- teristics), leakage current, electric field profile along the channel, eTemperature profile, breakdown voltage, capacitance–voltage characteristics for rounded gate devices are ob- served.
• Field plate technology is widely implemented, and various configurations of field plates are reported in the literature. The proposed work focuses on examining the effect of field plates in rounded gate devices and its impact on the device reliability by studying their electrical characteristics.
Our major contribution in this work is the implementation of rounded gate device, and a well planned investigative study of the device structure to understand the reliability and performance aspect. Although, gate shape engineering (slant gate) is well known for enhancing of device performance, this work explores a particular rounded gate edge, which is unique. It is
4. Numerical Investigation of Rounded Gate Device
essential to investigate rounded gate edge for the device reliability on the context of gate–shape engineering, and an attempt is made in this work to carry out an investigative study. With this study, reliability and performance aspect of rounded gate shape geometry by analyzing electric field profile, eTemperature profile, current–voltage characteristics, breakdown voltage, and capacitance–voltage are presented.
It is to mention that the work presented in this chapter is an investigate study to gain new insights into the device behaviour as gate shape changes. There are numerous findings, in which device dimension, such as gate length and gate-to-drain spacing are based on the device application, viz. RF, HV or LV switching. However, it is necessary to note the fact that researchers carry out such investigative study without any conformity to any of device application as reported by Song et al. [139], wherein gate-length = 1.5 µm is considered and is an exploratory study. The aim of the proposed study is to enhance device reliability, therefore, all the application, where reliability is the main concern, the proposed device can be considered as a suitable candidate.
The rest of chapter is organized as follows. Section 4.2 describes physical model considered for the numerical analysis. Section 4.3 is dedicated to results and discussion consisting of six sub-sections namely, Current–Voltage Characteristics, Leakage Current, Electron Temperature Profile, Electric Field Profile, Breakdown Voltage and Capacitance–Voltage Characteristics.
Finally, the summary is presented in section 4.4.