The effects of gate length L_G on breakdown voltage VBRare investigated in AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors(HEMTs) with L_G= 1 μm^20 μm. With the increase of L_G, VBRis first increased, and then saturated at LG= 3 μm. For the HEMT with L_G= 1 μm, breakdown voltage VBRis 117 V, and it can be enhanced to 148 V for the HEMT with L-_G= 3 μm. The gate length of 3 μm can alleviate the buffer-leakage-induced impact ionization compared with the gate length of 1 μm, and the suppression of the impact ionization is the reason for improving the breakdown voltage.A similar suppression of the impact ionization exists in the HEMTs with LG> 3 μm. As a result, there is no obvious difference in breakdown voltage among the HEMTs with LG= 3 μm^20 μm, and their breakdown voltages are in a range of 140 V–156 V.
In this paper, a novel Al Ga N/Ga N HEMT with a Schottky drain and a compound field plate(SD-CFP HEMT) is presented for the purpose of better reverse blocking capability. The compound field plate(CFP) consists of a drain field plate(DFP) and several floating field plates(FFPs). The physical mechanisms of the CFP to improve the reverse breakdown voltage and to modulate the distributions of channel electric field and potential are investigated by two-dimensional numerical simulations with Silvaco-ATLAS. Compared with the HEMT with a Schottky drain(SD HEMT) and the HEMT with a Schottky drain and a DFP(SD-FP HEMT), the superiorities of SD-CFP HEMT lie in the continuous improvement of the reverse breakdown voltage by increasing the number of FFPs and in the same fabrication procedure as the SD-FP HEMT.Two useful optimization laws for the SD-CFP HEMTs are found and extracted from simulation results. The relationship between the number of the FFPs and the reverse breakdown voltage as well as the FP efficiency in SD-CFP HEMTs are discussed. The results in this paper demonstrate a great potential of CFP for enhancing the reverse blocking ability in Al Ga N/Ga N HEMT and may be of great value and significance in the design and actual manufacture of SD-CFP HEMTs.
V-gate GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are fabricated and investigated systematically. A V-shaped recess geometry is obtained using an improved Si3N4 recess etching technology. Compared with standard HEMTs, the fabricated V-gate HEMTs exhibit a 17% higher peak extrinsic transconductance due to a narrowed gate foot. Moreover, both the gate leakage and current dispersion are dramatically suppressed simultaneously, although a slight degradation of frequency response is observed. Based on a two-dimensional electric field simulation using Silvaco "ATLAS" for both standard HEMTs and V-gate HEMTs, the relaxation in peak electric field at the gate edge is identified as the predominant factor leading to the superior performance of V-gate HEMTs.
In this paper,the influence of a drain field plate(FP)on the forward blocking characteristics of an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor(HEMT)is investigated.The HEMT with only a gate FP is optimized,and breakdown voltage VBRis saturated at 1085 V for gate–drain spacing LGD≥8μm.On the basis of the HEMT with a gate FP,a drain FP is added with LGD=10μm.For the length of the drain FP LDF≤2μm,VBRis almost kept at 1085 V,showing no degradation.When LDFexceeds 2μm,VBRdecreases obviously as LDFincreases.Moreover,the larger the LDF,the larger the decrease of VBR.It is concluded that the distance between the gate edge and the drain FP edge should be larger than a certain value to prevent the drain FP from affecting the forward blocking voltage and the value should be equal to the LGDat which VBR begins to saturate in the first structure.The electric field and potential distribution are simulated and analyzed to account for the decrease of VBR.
