Meandering gate edges for breakdown voltage enhancement in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel device design with meandering gate edges in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs that significantly enhances breakdown voltage and overall performance by engineering the gate-drain region, supported by simulations and experimental data.

Contribution

The paper presents a new gate edge design strategy that improves breakdown voltage and BFOM in III-nitride HEMTs, with detailed simulation and experimental validation.

Findings

Breakdown voltage increased by 62% with the new design.

BFOM improved by 28% due to the design change.

Peak electric field at the gate edge decreased, enhancing device reliability.

Abstract

In this letter, we report on a unique device design strategy for increasing the breakdown voltage and hence Baliga Figure of Merit (BFOM) of III-nitride HEMTs by engineering the gate edge towards the drain. The breakdown of such devices with meandering gate-drain access region (M-HEMT) are found to be 62% more compared to that of conventional HEMT while the ON resistance suffers by 76%, leading to an overall improvement in the BFOM for by 28%. 3D-TCAD simulations show that the decrease in the peak electric field at the gate edge was responsible for increased breakdown voltage.